Peter personally drives NVIDIA to commit, to Google, that it will support CIQ-built RLC on NVIDIA hardware

October 23, 2026 at 11:04 PMstrategyhigh

Situation

At the 10/22 GDC roadmap meeting Google disclosed NVIDIA had put in writing that Google must reproduce NVIDIA-hardware bugs on RHEL before NVIDIA will look at them. Peter took it on personally: called Scott Hara (NVIDIA) that evening - NVIDIA engineering to align, a three-way NDA, and a statement to Google that NVIDIA will work with both CIQ and Google; emailed Tissa (Google) and shaped Google question to include joint support given CIQ custom kernel work for Google; forwarded to Scott asking for a positive written response; asked Greg to be ready to make the case to NVIDIA. In the same meeting he told Google CIQ can support their roadmap for the next year line item by line item, in response to Google assembling its own senior kernel team.

Reasoning

A reproduce-on-RHEL-first clause tells Google that CIQ RLC on NVIDIA hardware is unsupported, which kills the GB200/GB300/Vera Rubin onboarding Google wants; it cannot wait for normal channels. Only NVIDIA can fix it credibly, in writing, to Google, with CIQ positioned as the party making it happen. With Google hiring its own kernel team, any doubt about CIQ supportability feeds a build-it-ourselves decision. Greg is held in reserve as closer.

Additional Context

Peter confirmed the hypothesis as presented.

Observed Evidence

Slack 10/22-23, emails to Tissa and Scott Hara 10/23, GDC roadmap meeting reference; roadmap line-by-line statement.

Matching Patterns

55%
Executive Sponsorship for Strategic Partnerships(cross-company blocker escalated and handled at CTO level)
40%
Reclassify to Route(support policy reclassified as partnership question for NVIDIA leadership)

Confidence Breakdown

34/35
Evidence
15/30
Pattern
18/20
Source
15/15
Corroboration

Reasoning Depth Analysis

Org Signal:Partner support statements affecting a strategic customer are CTO-owned
Who Affected:Google GDC, NVIDIA engineering, Greg, CIQ kernel team carrying joint support
Precedent:When a third-party policy undermines CIQ with a customer, go after the policy at its source
Consequences:Without a written NVIDIA statement, Google onboarding of new GPU families on CIQ RLC is at risk
Timing:Surfaced 3pm 10/22; Peter on the phone with NVIDIA that evening

Source

reflection

AI Confidence

82%

Related Context

💬
#distinguished-leaders

slack

NVidia put in writing for Google that if google runs into problems on nvidia hardware they will need to first reproduce the bug on RHEL before NVidia will look at it.

💬
#distinguished-leaders

slack

He will work to get a three way nda put together ... he expects he can get a statement to Google that they will work with both us and Google.

📧
Fwd: NVIDIA support on Rocky Linux (to Scott Hara)

email

This is the note that I need someone at Nvidia to respond to with a Yes, we will support you Google as you work with CIQ.

Outcome

No outcome recorded yet.

Decision ID: 3f1108c4-b89e-44f4-a1a9-c4d67a754ad3