Nvidia has acquired AI software firm SchedMD as it steps up investments in open-source technology to strengthen its position in the fast-growing artificial intelligence ecosystem.
The chipmaker said on Monday that the deal will deepen its software capabilities at a time when competition in AI hardware and models is intensifying. Financial terms were not disclosed, but Nvidia confirmed that SchedMD’s software will continue to be distributed as open source.
SchedMD is best known for Slurm, an open-source workload manager used to schedule and manage large computing jobs in data centres. The software helps organisations allocate server capacity efficiently, which is critical for training and running large AI models. While Slurm is free to use, SchedMD generates revenue by providing engineering and support services.
Although Nvidia built its dominance on high-performance chips, software has become central to its strategy. Its CUDA platform remains a key advantage, tying developers closely to Nvidia hardware. By adding SchedMD’s technology, Nvidia strengthens the infrastructure layer that underpins large-scale AI development.
“Slurm is part of the critical infrastructure needed for generative AI,” Nvidia said in a blog post, noting that the software is already supported on its latest hardware and widely used by AI developers.
The acquisition comes as Nvidia faces growing pressure from rival open-source AI efforts, particularly from Chinese research labs. Earlier on Monday, the company also unveiled a new family of open-source AI models, which it said are faster, cheaper and more capable than previous versions.
SchedMD was founded in 2010 in Livermore, California, by Morris “Moe” Jette and Danny Auble, two of the original developers of Slurm. The company employs about 40 people and counts organisations such as CoreWeave and the Barcelona Supercomputing Center among its customers.
Nvidia shares rose about 1.3% following the announcement, reflecting investor confidence in the company’s expanding software and open-source strategy.
