A US senator questions Nvidia’s control over open-source Slurm, citing risks to competition and national security as reliance on the software deepens across defence and AI systems.
Elizabeth Warren has raised national security concerns over Nvidia’s acquisition of SchedMD, the developer of the open-source Slurm workload manager. In a formal letter to Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, she requested details on US government dependency on Nvidia hardware and software, alongside any assessment of risks tied to the deal.
Slurm powers roughly 60% of the world’s supercomputers and underpins US government systems used for ballistic missile simulations, nuclear weapons development, and large-scale AI model training, including systems like Claude. Its role as a core scheduling layer makes it a critical piece of infrastructure across high-performance computing and AI ecosystems.
Despite Nvidia stating, “Customers everywhere benefit from our open source and free software. Slurm is open-source and we continue to provide enhancements for everyone,” concerns persist over a shift from open governance to vendor influence.
Warren warned, “NVIDIA’s acquisition of Slurm turns a once free software into one of NVIDIA’s proprietary offerings, which may reduce competition and harm national security.” She added, “This would give NVIDIA disproportionate control over a chokepoint that rival firms rely on to operate government supercomputers,” and cautioned that such control could allow Nvidia to “box out competitors.”
Industry voices echo fears of ecosystem bias, though some expect accelerated development under Nvidia. The deal follows earlier acquisitions of Bright Computing and Run, both facing antitrust scrutiny, reinforcing concerns over concentrated control of open-source-backed infrastructure.
