SUSE unveils sovereign AI platform with NVIDIA tie-up
Fri, 23rd Oct 2026 (Today)
SUSE has announced new products and partnerships with NVIDIA aimed at giving companies more control over private AI deployments. The move focuses on security and infrastructure for autonomous AI agents inside corporate environments.
The update includes SUSE becoming a launch partner for NVIDIA's OpenShell Reference Architecture, the introduction of SLES for NVIDIA, a new independent software vendor certification programme for SUSE AI Factory, and a partnership with Fujitsu on a hybrid quantum platform.
OpenShell integration will be added to SUSE AI Factory with NVIDIA, allowing organisations to run AI agents within their own infrastructure while applying access policies to restrict the transfer of proprietary data and intellectual property outside private systems.
The architecture combines NVIDIA Vera Rubin for model inference, NVIDIA Vera CPUs for agent execution, and NVIDIA BlueField-4 DPUs for monitoring and policy enforcement. SUSE said Kubernetes sandboxing and API gateways will be used alongside OpenShell to govern how agents run.
Dr Thomas Di Giacomo, Chief Technology and Product Officer at SUSE, said the changes reflect growing demand from enterprises for greater control over AI systems and the hardware that supports them.
"As autonomous AI agents and next-generation silicon advancements reshape enterprise operations, AI sovereignty becomes non-negotiable," said Dr Thomas Di Giacomo, Chief Technology and Product Officer at SUSE.
"By combining enterprise Linux engineered for bleeding-edge hardware with active agent security, SUSE AI Factory with NVIDIA OpenShell equips IT teams to scale AI rapidly while keeping proprietary data, system availability, and budgets strictly under their control," he said.
Infrastructure layer
SUSE also introduced SLES for NVIDIA, a version of its Linux platform built to support NVIDIA's latest chips, including Vera Rubin. Businesses will have a single support route covering the operating system, kernel, GPU drivers, and Kubernetes runtime.
The approach is intended to reduce the need for customers to work across several vendors when troubleshooting production problems. SUSE said the product is designed to help companies move AI workloads onto new NVIDIA hardware from the start while maintaining compatibility between development and production environments.
The broader announcement comes as companies and public sector bodies weigh how to keep AI data, workloads, and governance under their own control. SUSE pointed to sovereign AI requirements as a growing issue for customers operating in regulated or sensitive environments.
One example is the Secretariat of Finance of Guanajuato in Mexico, which is using SUSE AI Factory with NVIDIA to test sovereign AI services for public administration. The proof of concept focuses on validating AI-led services and internal workflows while keeping data and infrastructure under local control.
"Using SUSE AI Factory with NVIDIA in our environment gives us a clear path toward becoming a truly cognitive government," said José Luis Huerta Santos, Planning and IT Architecture at the Secretariat of Finance of Guanajuato.
"Having a sovereign, open source foundation allows us to rapidly evaluate AI workloads while ensuring our citizens' data, infrastructure availability, and operational costs remain strictly under our control," he said.
Partner network
SUSE is also adding a two-tier software certification structure for SUSE AI Factory and SUSE AI Factory with NVIDIA. The programme is intended to confirm that partner software works with the platform and to clarify support responsibilities when issues arise.
The two levels are "Ready for" certification, based on partner self-validation and support commitments, and "Certified for" certification, which covers jointly validated configurations with automated deployment and lifecycle management.
Six partners have already joined the programme: Klique by ClearML, Tensormesh, Traefik Labs, AlchemiStudio, Wiser Technology, and CloudCasa by Catalogic. Their products cover AI control planes, inference optimisation, governance tools, sovereign AI software, digital twin decision support, and backup and disaster recovery for Kubernetes-based AI workloads.
Rhys Oxenham, General Manager of AI at SUSE, said the company sees software validation and support as a barrier for customers moving beyond trials.
"To drive real AI transformation, enterprises need more than baseline infrastructure, they need an expansive, trusted ecosystem," said Rhys Oxenham, General Manager of AI at SUSE.
"By establishing a rigorous ISV certification programme for SUSE AI Factory with NVIDIA, and expanding our partner catalogue with top-tier third-party software, we are enriching our portfolio with pre-validated capabilities. Together with our ISV partners, we offer a deeply integrated, fully supported platform that allows customers to move seamlessly from experimentation into sovereign, enterprise-grade production," he said.
Quantum tie-up
Alongside the AI infrastructure updates, SUSE said it is working with Fujitsu on an AI-driven hybrid quantum platform that combines SUSE AI Factory with NVIDIA and NVIDIA CUDA-Q software on Fujitsu servers. The companies described it as a production stack for sovereign infrastructure that brings hybrid quantum computing together with NVIDIA AI Enterprise.
Fujitsu said the arrangement is designed to connect quantum simulation workloads with production enterprise applications on existing server infrastructure.
"As Fujitsu expands its technology portfolio with our new quantum computer and Digital Annealer, this partnership delivers the secure infrastructure foundation enterprises need," said Udo Wuertz, CTO, Fsas Technologies EMEA at FSAS.
"Running this stack on Fujitsu servers allows customers to supercharge their existing hardware investments and connect quantum simulation directly to production applications," he said.