Decisions
50+ recent decisions
Engineering QBR format — collaborative discussion with three topics, not a presentation
May 13, 2026 · operational · medium73% confidence
Peter directed that the 5/22 Engineering QBR will be a collaborative working session rather than a formal presentation, organized around three questions: what is working well, what needs improvement, and how to streamline communication and increase work visibility. Chris Baek owns the shared prep doc that will collect bullet-point inputs from engineering leads ahead of the session.
People: Chris Baek, Nathan Blackham, Justin Haynes, Steve Wallace, Chris Wolford, Ryan Smith, Max Spevack
Extend personal-health leave to 6/5 with explicit cap and revisit trigger
May 12, 2026 · people · high93% confidence
Peter agreed via DM with Mariah to extend a direct reports unpaid personal-health leave through 6/5, while explicitly stating that extending past 6/1 pushes past his comfort level and that any extension beyond 6/5 will trigger a revisit. The decision balanced Bjorns prior generosity preference (Bjorn was consulted before responding) against Peters own concern about open-endedness. Mariah immediately flagged precedent implications.
People: Mariah Rippee, Bjorn Hovland
CVE response strategy — three-pillar overhaul (process + tooling + strategic kernel review)
May 12, 2026 · strategy · high91% confidence
In Engineering Weekly Sync, Peter operationalized the 5/11 Leadership Roundtable vuln-handling commitment into three concrete pillars: (1) Chris Baek to restructure the embargo/CVE comms doc with Jamie, separating process from tooling/templates; (2) tooling strategy — Peter commits to email Greg requesting Claude Opus 4.7 whitelist for CIQ accounts AND to set up unbridled internal LLM models on Fuzzball for vuln investigations; (3) schedule strategic kernel philosophy review for early June, with Nathan and Justin to provide a list of downstream automation efforts to prioritize.
People: Chris Baek, Jamie Brooks, Nathan Blackham, Justin Haynes, Steve Wallace, Greg Kurtzer, Bjorn Hovland
Open strategic review of RLC/RLK identity + upstream binding (Dirty Frag triggered)
May 12, 2026 · strategy · high78% confidence
Saturday 5/9 in #department-heads, in immediate response to Justin's Dirty Frag status table and Nathan's note about CIQ patches being shared with the RESF, Peter announced he wants the leadership team to take up a strategic question next week: what recurring vulnerabilities imply about CIQ's kernel posture, how tightly to bind to upstream, how to work with the RESF, and what it means going forward to be RLC and RLK. Aimed at framing input for the mid-to-late June LA in-person product-strategy session with Bjorn and Greg.
People: Peter Nelson, Greg Kurtzer, Nathan Blackham, Justin Haynes, Bjorn Hovland
Commit engineering to vuln-handling infra/automation at Leadership Roundtable
May 12, 2026 · strategy · high92% confidence
At the 5/11 Leadership Roundtable, Peter accepted an explicit action item to prioritize vulnerability-response infrastructure and automation work in engineering, and to update Chris Baek as the interim process owner. The commitment converts the 5/8 internal-to-engineering commitment (build/test infra to eliminate reactive interrupts) into a cross-functional commitment with Bjorn, Greg, Chris, and Lindsay in the room.
People: Peter Nelson, Greg Kurtzer, Bjorn Hovland, Chris Baek, Lindsay Aamodt
Sensitive Decision
Reject open-ended LGU+ RHEL/OEL support commitments — best effort only
May 8, 2026 · strategy · high94% confidence
Nathan surfaced (via Justin) a CIQ <> LGU+ contract proposal requiring CIQ to provide workarounds and answer customer SR tickets for RHEL 6 (already EOL), RHEL 7/8/9, and OEL 6/7. Peter intervened in the same-day group DM with Bjorn, Art, and Ramesh to draw the line at best effort only — no commitments to deliver workarounds or answers. Asked Nathan if it is not yet in force so he can get in front of it before signing.
People: Nathan Blackham, Justin Haynes, Bjorn Hovland, Arthur Tyde, Ramesh Srinivasan
Prioritize build/test infrastructure to eliminate reactive engineering interrupts
May 8, 2026 · strategy · high94% confidence
After Dirty Frag CVE took Linux engineering offline for 24 hours, Peter committed to prioritize building robust build/test infrastructure as the proactive response. Told Brady/Brian this requires Product leadership to de-prioritize other work to make room. Surfaced publicly in #department-heads thread asking how to structure infra for the new normal of AI-assisted exploit cadence.
People: Brady Dibble, Brian Dawson, Nathan Blackham, Justin Haynes, Bjorn Hovland, Greg Kurtzer
Late-August dedicated security hire timing (6 months post-Jasons departure)
May 7, 2026 · people · medium82% confidence
Aligned with Steve in 1:1 that a dedicated security resource hire is appropriate in late August — six months after Jasons departure. Options on the table: full-time hire, fractional resource, or expanding the Shin Brothers role. Steve currently at 70% capacity on ISO 42001 documentation; workload expected to normalize after this week, with SOC 2 and ISO 27001 audits expected to be lighter.
People: Steve Wallace, Jason (departed), Shin Brothers (partner)
Ask Bjorn to deliver ARR/dilution/Series-B rationale to engineering org
May 7, 2026 · strategy · medium83% confidence
Committed to ask Bjorn to clarify the link between doubling ARR (to $20M), Series B funding with minimal dilution, and employee stock value — to be delivered in All Hands or in Peters org meeting. The intent is for Bjorn to walk the team through the knife-edge: failure forces more investor funding with significant dilution; success enables Series B with minimal dilution and a clear path to profitability.
People: Bjorn Hovland, Ryan Smith
Moody accountability: step up to senior contributor or be managed — framed as response to his growth ask
May 7, 2026 · people · medium86% confidence
Flagged Moodys recent missed deadlines and failure to track work to Steve in 1:1, with explicit framing: this is a direct response to Moodys stated desire to become a senior contributor, not a punitive measure. Expectation set: Moody must step up and handle responsibility independently, not require close management. Steve aligned. Moody is out May 15-20 — coaching window is now.
People: Steve Wallace, Mohammed Moody, Mariah Rippee
Senior leadership candidate engagement: open to talk, not under pressure, will not give away the kingdom
May 7, 2026 · people · medium82% confidence
On the senior leadership candidate Greg/Bjorn surfaced (described by Bjorn as a bit all over the place and by Greg as starting like she is that much of a gift to us), Peter took a disciplined position: happy to talk, would like another senior person, but not feeling pressure right now and will not concede equity/scope/title to land her. Also flagged: expects steady-state of senior candidate flow for a while.
People: Greg Kurtzer, Bjorn Hovland, (unnamed senior candidate), Nathan Blackham
Icicle viability gate: AI inference benchmark on H100 decides go/no-go
May 7, 2026 · technical · high88% confidence
Set a clear decision gate for the Icicle project: viability is determined by performance on a real-world AI inference workload, not synthetic benchmarks. Omer to run the RLC Pro AI benchmark on an H100 GPU. 2-3x synthetic CPU/memory degradation is acceptable IF power savings are significant for AI inference; otherwise project gets punted.
People: Nathan Blackham, Ryan Smith, Omer, Ahmer Mumtaz, Jeff Uphoff, Damen Knight, Ani Fox Bochenkov, Bjorn Hovland
Eliminate one-off release processes — paved-paths Jira initiative Peter commits to prioritize
May 7, 2026 · operational · high92% confidence
Mandated elimination of all one-off release processes. Justin to file a Jira ticket for the paved-paths initiative; Peter commits to prioritize it. Companion to the Jira-as-system-of-record mandate established the same meeting. Direct response to recent CVE post-mortem revealing most products run ad-hoc release flows.
People: Justin Haynes, Brady Dibble, Brian Dawson
Reassign Owen to Maxs AI tooling for definitive performance evaluation
May 7, 2026 · people · medium92% confidence
In Ryan 1:1, decided to assign Owen to Maxs AI tooling projects when Max returns from leave (~3 weeks). Defines the project with Nate beforehand so it is ready to deploy day one. Resolves conflicting feedback: Ryan sees senior Golang engineer underutilized; Bjorn questions value; Max and Nathan have called recent work AI slop.
People: Ryan Smith, Owen, Max Spevack, Nathan Blackham, Bjorn Hovland
Approve Veeam-related kernel engineering headcount; run Sergei + Jamin referral in parallel
May 7, 2026 · people · medium91% confidence
In Nathan 1:1, approved the Veeam-related kernel engineering headcount. Nathan to continue engaging Sergei despite initial salary concerns and to evaluate a new referral (former Twitter/EC2 database engineer with strong automation skills) as a parallel track.
People: Nathan Blackham, Sergei (candidate), Jamin (referral)
Assign Owen to Max AI tooling for definitive performance evaluation
May 7, 2026 · people · medium91% confidence
Decision in Ryan 1:1 (Wed 5/6 12:30 PM) to assign Owen Wood to Max Spevack AI tooling projects on Max return from leave (~3 weeks). Definitive evaluation to resolve conflicting team feedback — Ryan sees senior Golang underutilized; Bjorn questions value; Max and Nathan have called recent work AI slop. Peter confirmed in DM with Ryan: We will get it rolling.
People: Ryan Smith, Max Spevack, Owen Wood, Nathan Blackham
Add Justin to Binarly meeting; debrief AFTER, not before
May 5, 2026 · operational · low73% confidence
Peter added Justin Haynes to tomorrow Binarly meeting to ensure engineering representation. Explicit decision to debrief Justin AFTER the meeting rather than pre-coaching him beforehand.
People: Justin Haynes, Sarah Almaraz
Peter delivers Reno QBR C-suite intro Thursday — covering Bjorn late arrival
May 5, 2026 · operational · medium76% confidence
Peter will deliver the C-suite intro at Reno QBR Thursday morning, since Bjorn arrives Thursday afternoon. Peter arrives 8:45 AM Thursday. Greg travels to Houston with Adam for a 1 PM Thursday sales meeting.
People: Bjorn Hovland, Gregory Kurtzer, Sarah Almaraz, Ramesh Srinivasan, Chris Baek
Coach Brady on 2-step framework (strategy first, tactics second) and enforce live
May 5, 2026 · people · high92% confidence
Taught Brady the 2-step framework in his weekly 1:1: define strategic What first, then plan tactical How with Engineering. Then enforced it live in the CVE post-mortem group DM with Brady and Brian. When Brady proposed concrete CVE-response solutions (cross-train engineers, designate a quarterback, escalation paths) without first clarifying priority trade-offs, Peter refused to engage on the solutions: Your job, your ONLY job, is prioritization. Step one is answer my question. Step two will never happen absent step one. Never. Not one time. Brady eventually conceded.
People: Brady Dibble, Brian Dawson
Three-tier board hierarchy formalized — Strategic EPICs / Value Drivers / Tactical Jira
May 5, 2026 · operational · high93% confidence
Aligned with Bjorn on a 3-tier hierarchy: Strategic Board (EPICs requiring CEO-level prioritization), Value Drivers Board (GTM stories), and Tactical Boards (Jira execution). The current PPL board converts to the Strategic Board. Top ~50 only; anything below is wasted prioritization that will need redoing by the time it is worked on. Greg agreed to disagree-and-commit once Peter+Bjorn document the rules and walk him through.
People: Bjorn Hovland, Gregory Kurtzer, Brady Dibble, Nathan Blackham
Mariah escalates Stephen Moody project delays directly to Peter (bypass Wallace)
May 4, 2026 · operational · medium70% confidence
Mariah will notify Peter immediately when Steve Moody delays HR-relevant project work. Triggered by a 6-week unresponsiveness pattern on the Rippling/JIRA integration that Steve Wallace had not escalated. Direct-escalation bypasses the manager (Wallace) for HR-adjacent commitments while Peter assesses whether this is a Moody problem or a Wallace prioritization problem.
People: Mariah Rippee, Steve Wallace, Stephen Moody
PPL is being misused — push Bjorn to realign it to strategic priorities
May 4, 2026 · operational · high85% confidence
The Product Priority List has drifted from a strategic-priority list (epic-level) into a granular project tracker, obscuring strategic priorities (RLCAI on Spark buried at #88) and creating bottlenecks (Ollama package delayed to May 15). Peters position: PPL must return to defining company strategy at epic level; granular tasks belong in JIRA. Will engage Bjorn directly to realign — this is the framing decision; the implementation is the negotiation with Bjorn.
People: Bjorn Hovland, Greg Kurtzer, Brady Dibble
Three-tier Rakuten kernel proposal — 8.10 preferred, 8.6 sustaining, $800k-$1M PS for full 8.6
May 4, 2026 · strategy · high87% confidence
Push Rakuten to migrate RLC 8.6 to 8.10. Three-tier proposal: (1) preferred — full support on 8.10 with CIQ vendor coordination to accelerate hardware recertification; (2) alternative — sustaining support on 8.6 with no new patches/backports (security risk on Rakuten); (3) PS engagement — $800k-$1M/year to fund two dedicated kernel engineers for full 8.6 support, framed explicitly as Professional Services cost not mainline engineering. June renewal is the forcing function. The original handshake-pricing deal with Tarek is void.
People: Ramesh Srinivasan, Suzanne Spencer-Purcell, Nathan Blackham, Greg Kurtzer
Documentation process — Product defines exit criteria in Jira, Engineering delivers
May 4, 2026 · operational · high77% confidence
Formalize documentation ownership: Product defines documentation requirements in Jira ticket exit criteria (e.g., docs suitable for blog post). Engineering delivers content meeting those criteria. Product or Marketing (Lindsay) refines technical content into user-friendly format.
People: Chris Baek, Brady Dibble, Lindsay Aamodt
Everfox: require ~$2M front-loaded year-one payment, reject back-loaded $600k structure
May 4, 2026 · strategy · high93% confidence
Peter is requiring a large upfront payment ($2M floor with the proposal team; $4-6M float with Greg) for the new Everfox custom work (legacy CPU support, custom desktop) and rejecting the back-loaded $600k year-one structure. The $20M/10-year deal will be restructured to front-load payments, potentially by reducing total contract value if needed. CIQ will not absorb non-reusable engineering work without immediate funding.
People: Ramesh Srinivasan, Suzanne Spencer-Purcell, Bjorn Hovland, Greg Kurtzer, Nathan Blackham, Brady Dibble
Engineering veto required on custom deals and new lines of business
May 4, 2026 · strategy · high92% confidence
Peter is implementing a formal process where Engineering has review-and-veto authority on custom deals and new lines of business. Engineering must be consulted to assess cost and feasibility before any deal is finalized. Discussed in Peter <> Chris 5/1 and applied immediately to the Everfox proposal restructuring on 5/4.
People: Chris Baek, Bjorn Hovland, Ramesh Srinivasan, Suzanne Spencer-Purcell
Coach Mariah toward sharper, peer-level feedback posture — Reno trip offered
May 1, 2026 · people · medium78% confidence
Following a heated DM disagreement about how to handle a senior IC's return-from-leave conversation, Peter offered Mariah an explicit choice: be treated the way Peter treats Bjorn and Greg (sharp, direct, unvarnished disagreement) or stay softer. Peter framed the conversation as investment, named that Mariah is undersized for where she could be ('I would like to see you pulled more into the core of things here'), and offered to be in Reno end of next week (Thursday) to discuss over lunch.
People: Peter Nelson, Mariah Rippee, Bjorn Hovland, Christina
Ryan to POC AI-driven Veeam image builder, gated on Justin-approved test suite
May 1, 2026 · strategy · high85% confidence
Ryan will POC an AI-driven image builder, starting with Veeam, that automates custom image builds, testing, and documentation. Hard gate: AI-generated images must pass a Justin-approved test suite to prevent hallucinations. Long-term vision: a 'Chipotle line' image configurator letting users compose custom, repeatable builds from validated components.
People: Peter Nelson, Ryan Smith, Justin Haynes, Jamie Brooks, David Gomez, Jamin Maple
Tighten Jira-as-system-of-record into active enforcement — instruct teams to ignore Slack-only requests
May 1, 2026 · operational · high80% confidence
All significant work must be in Jira to count as a commitment. Peter will instruct teams to actively ignore requests that exist only in Slack. This escalates the Apr 18 quality decision from policy ('ticket your work') to enforcement ('we will refuse to act on un-ticketed requests'). Justin owns the enforcement in Build/Test/Deployment, the function most contaminated by ad-hoc Slack asks.
People: Peter Nelson, Justin Haynes
Ryan Smith owns docs.ciq.com
May 1, 2026 · operational · medium90% confidence
docs.ciq.com was orphaned after Gwen's departure. In Ryan's 1:1, Peter assigned ownership to Ryan, who will coordinate with Arian and Steven on the existing work.
People: Peter Nelson, Ryan Smith, Arian, Steven
Sensitive Decision
Ship CIQ kernel patch with extra fix; contribute upstream; race to be first/best on CVE response
May 1, 2026 · strategy · high92% confidence
Linux kernel CVE response: CIQ shipping 10 fixes vs CentOS Stream's 9 (CIQ found and is fixing an extra issue related to the CVE). Extra commit submitted upstream to centos-stream and acknowledged for inclusion. CIQ pushing to be first EL distro to release, with primary goal of customer reassurance and secondary goal of public proof point that CIQ contributes to security and is large enough to serve big customers. Also pushing patches to RLC kernels as fallback in case RH doesn't move quickly.
People: Peter Nelson, Nathan Blackham, Justin Haynes, Joseph Tate, Bjorn Hovland, Greg Kurtzer, Dave Dickerson, Lindsay Aamodt, Steve Wallace
Send IAG/Sam an operational due-diligence note on Raven Resonance (Thomas Suarez)
Apr 29, 2026 · strategy · medium74% confidence
After spending an hour with Thomas Suarez at Raven Resonances office during IAG Summit Apr 28, Peter wrote and sent Sam at IAG a structured operational assessment covering supplier pipeline, BOM, roadmap, manufacturing risk (including possibility of Raven-owned China manufacturing), photonics dependency, test facilities, hiring/culture, financials, capital plan. Conclusion: Theres a real company here. Forwarded the same note to Thomas for transparency.
People: Sam (IAG), Thomas Suarez (Raven Resonance)
Empower Nathan to defer Hassan secure-boot working session if engineering not ready
Apr 29, 2026 · operational · medium84% confidence
Apr 28 morning, Nathan flagged in #google-partnership-governance that he was not prepared for the Hassan working session that afternoon. Peter (at IAG, unable to attend) DMed Nathan: Youll be the senior guy in the room. If we arent ready for it tell Kelly we arent ready and to push it back. Brady and Kelly both signaled flexibility; the team coordinated and chose to proceed with a working-meeting framing. Peter closed the channel thread with Thank you all.
People: Nathan Blackham, Kelly Hall, Brady Dibble, Hassan (Google)
Assign Justin (not Nathan) ownership of Binarly engineering relationship
Apr 29, 2026 · people · medium69% confidence
When Brady asked via DM whether Nathan or Justin should own the Binarly engineering relationship from CIQ side, Peter answered More Justin.
People: Justin Haynes, Nathan Blackham, Brady Dibble
Introduce Serge Hallyn to Nathan for senior Linux engineering hire
Apr 29, 2026 · people · medium90% confidence
Activated the dormant Serge Hallyn introduction (originally made by Meena Rajvaidya in January 2026, on hold while Serge had Q1 commitments) by emailing Serge Apr 27 to introduce him to Nathan Blackham, who runs Linux Development, to evaluate a potential CIQ join.
People: Serge Hallyn, Nathan Blackham, Meena Rajvaidya
Sensitive Decision
Fuzzball PoC ownership belongs to Sales Engineering, supported by Engineering
Apr 27, 2026 · operational · medium78% confidence
When Bjorn asked who should own Fuzzball PoCs (Sales Engineering vs Wolfgang/Godlove vs Support), Peter answered definitively: Sales Engineering, supported by Engineering. Bjorn agreed with the framing — pushback was strictly about Sales Engineering not being enabled on Fuzzball today (resourcing gap), not the principle. The default routing stands.
People: Bjorn Hovland, Ramesh Srinivasan, Jonathon Anderson, Wolfgang, Godlove, Sales Engineering team
Expand Atomicorp partnership scope to absorb compliance load CIQ will not staff
Apr 27, 2026 · strategy · high80% confidence
Peter directed deeper integration with Atomicorp specifically to avoid investing in internal HR/headcount around compliance. Atomicorp will carry as much of the compliance load (STIG, FIPS, audit, certification, ongoing attestation work) as they are willing to absorb, freeing CIQ from staffing a dedicated compliance function.
People: Nathan Blackham, Atomicorp (external)
Defer ARM64 Pro Hardened build until Core42 commits — group decision Peter endorsed
Apr 27, 2026 · strategy · high78% confidence
In Apr 26 Sovereign AI response review meetings, the team — with Peter participating — decided the response language to Core42 will acknowledge that Pro Hardened on ARM64 (and FIPS-143 ARM certification) is contingent on a client commitment, not unilateral CIQ investment. ARM64 build estimated weeks not months once committed; FIPS-143 ARM is ~$200k / 4-6 months and gates on a deal commitment. Peter explicitly told the room: "We are going to need Nathan to say when. I am not going to be able to say on this call."
People: Bjorn Hovland, Brian Dawson, Brady Dibble, Nathan Blackham, Adam Jackson, Peter Nelson, Erik Grundstrom (Core42)
Open Ascender hiring req — start the process now, hire after close
Apr 27, 2026 · people · medium90% confidence
Peter approved opening the Ascender engineer requisition and running the recruiting process immediately, while noting actual hiring against the req cannot happen until the role formally closes. Operational handoff to Nathan to drive.
People: Nathan Blackham, Brianne Clasen
Manage Max situation — protect privacy, halt org outreach, decline his calendar
Apr 27, 2026 · people · high85% confidence
Peter is actively shielding Max Spevack from organizational pressure during a personal/private situation. Directed Sarah to access Max's calendar and decline all his meetings for the week, told Ryan to stand down ("No reaching out"), told Nathan to stand down ("worst thing Ryan can do is involve himself"), declined Mariah's offer to use Max's emergency contact ("let's give it a little more time"). Committed to talk with Max himself early this week.
People: Max Spevack, Sarah Almaraz, Ryan Smith, Nathan Blackham, Mariah Rippee, Dieter, Joel Spevack
Sensitive Decision
Block Max's calendar — don't schedule anything for the time being
Apr 18, 2026 · operational · medium90% confidence
In a DM (4/17 11:10 AM Pacific), Peter directed Sarah (assistant) to stop scheduling anything for Max Spevack for the time being. This operationalizes the indefinite-leave posture triggered by Christina's 4/16 7:45 PM call telling Peter that Max needs time away. Rather than letting Max's calendar keep generating missed-meeting signals to the org (like the 4/16 1:1 and interview no-shows), Peter chose to block new scheduling entirely until further notice.
People: Peter Nelson, Sarah Almaraz, Max Spevack
Manage Wesley via Greg; set boat-anchor trigger with Chris (preserve optionality)
Apr 18, 2026 · people · medium75% confidence
In the Chris W 1:1, Peter decided to manage Wesley's performance situation through his Greg relationship rather than moving Wesley onto a PIP or active weekly-1:1 performance track like Cole and Thomas Chin. Assessment: Wesley is capable but slow, requires handholding, won't operate at senior/principal level, but is not a net negative. Chris asked to proactively flag if Wesley becomes a boat anchor on team productivity — that is the threshold for escalation.
People: Peter Nelson, Chris Wolford, Greg Kurtzer
Open hiring for a dedicated Ascender engineer
Apr 18, 2026 · people · medium84% confidence
In the Design Sync, Peter took the action item to draft an Ascender Engineer job requisition and start the hiring process. Root cause: engineers Jimmy and Larry rejected a UI update PR for Ascender Pro citing the internal Quantic design system is not open source — an objection that is irrelevant since Ascender Pro is a closed-source commercial product. Bjorn will handle the immediate Jimmy conversation next week. Peter's move is structural: create an engineering owner whose role explicitly covers the closed-source Ascender Pro commercial mandate, so the category of blocker goes away.
People: Peter Nelson, Bjorn Hovland, Brian Christensen, Mariah Rippee
Quality initiatives must be ticketed visible work, prioritized by Product
Apr 18, 2026 · operational · high87% confidence
In the Brian/Brady weekly sync, Peter reinforced that quality cannot live as implicit expectations — Product must define and prioritize quality initiatives as explicit tickets that compete for resources against feature work. Engineering will only prioritize what is tracked. Companion frame: Exit Criteria are the product promise (Product owns, Engineering can challenge via debate); QA is delivery validation, split between Engineering (general releases) and Ryan's org (customer-specific fixes in mirrored environments). Brady to split test automation from build automation into a high-priority CI/CD ticket. Peter to verify with Justin that the build process at minimum runs a boot test.
People: Peter Nelson, Brian Dawson, Brady Dibble, Justin Haynes, Ryan Smith
Core42: pivot from Fuzzball sale to full-stack compliance partnership
Apr 18, 2026 · strategy · high92% confidence
After the Core42 Tech Dive Part 2 surfaced Core42 wants a single OS vendor for their full UAE compliance stack (NIST 800-53, BIS, IDAM, physical security) across three EOY-2026 GPU clusters, Peter immediately convened an internal Impromptu Zoom to reposition the opportunity. CIQ will propose a comprehensive partnership framing CIQ as the only group that can provide all requirements, with RLC Pro Hardened + Fuzzball + Ascender as the core stack and partners filling the remaining ~20%. Consultative play: CIQ will advise Core42 on which requirements in Eric Grundstrom's doc would cause unacceptable performance degradation vs. which can be met. Nathan to draft the proposal doc by EOD Saturday so CIQ can deliver an answer by Monday.
People: Peter Nelson, Bjorn Hovland, Greg Kurtzer, Adam Jackson, Nathan Blackham, Brady Dibble