New Delhi, India, December 16, 2025 –Nvidia made a significant announcement on Monday. They acquired SchedMD, the company responsible for the popular Slurm workload manager. This strategic purchase strengthens Nvidia’s efforts in open-source AI ecosystem development. The deal highlights their dedication to remaining a leader in the rapidly expanding artificial intelligence market. Nvidia is famous for its powerful graphics processors. Now, they are also focusing on software to complement that hardware. The industry-standard CUDA platform is already a foundation for many AI developers.
Slurm is a critical piece of open-source software. It manages complex computing jobs across data centers and supercomputers. Many researchers and businesses use it for large-scale scientific research. Significantly, it helps train big AI models. SchedMD’s technology is vital for scheduling and optimizing computing resources. This includes customers like CoreWeave and the Barcelona Supercomputing Center.
The company confirms Slurm will remain open-source and hardware-neutral. This ensures the global developer community can continue to use it freely. Nvidia stated that Slurm is necessary infrastructure for generative AI. They will keep supporting it as open-source software. Furthermore, they plan to enhance its capabilities for future AI tasks.
Financial details of the acquisition were not publicly shared. However, this action is part of a larger plan. Nvidia aims to improve its software offerings. This counters rising competition from other AI platforms. Earlier on Monday, the company also unveiled a new range of open-source AI models. These models promise faster and cheaper performance than earlier versions. The dual announcement clearly shows a strong commitment to open-source innovation.
Industry experts see this acquisition as a smart strategic move. Open-source tools like Slurm are highly trusted by enterprises and research institutions. Integrating Slurm with Nvidia’s existing hardware and software simplifies AI deployment. This combination reinforces Nvidia’s leading position. They lead in both the hardware and software used for AI development.
The timing of this deal is particularly significant. As competition in the AI sector grows more intense, new open-source models continue to emerge from global tech labs. By investing in proven infrastructure like Slurm, Nvidia simultaneously sends a clear message: the company intends to support the entire AI development process. This support extends from their high-performance chips to the essential scheduling software. Furthermore, the move highlights Nvidia’s commitment to building a complete and reliable AI ecosystem.
Nvidia’s shares saw a slight increase after the announcement. This indicates that investors feel confident in the company’s long-term strategy. Moreover, analysts expect the acquisition to help Nvidia maintain its dominance in the AI market. At the same time, it also fosters continued innovation within open-source communities. Meanwhile, SchedMD, founded in 2010 by Morris “Moe” Jette and Danny Auble, employs around 40 people. In addition, the company has built a strong reputation for reliable scheduling software that supports high-performance computing.
SchedMD’s technology will continue to be distributed without charge. Furthermore, Nvidia will provide engineering and maintenance support, ensuring that developers can keep using Slurm without interruption. In addition, they will benefit from Nvidia’s extensive resources and expertise. As AI adoption grows across industries, the need for reliable infrastructure becomes more critical. Consequently, open-source software plays an increasingly important role in supporting that infrastructure. With these steps, Nvidia is now well-positioned to meet the demands of the next wave of AI applications.
