US-Based CIQ Expands to Gulf Region to Accelerate AI-Ready and HPC Infrastructure Across the Middle East

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, Nov. 26, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- CIQ, the US-based leader in enterprise-grade open-source software infrastructure focusing on security and high performance computing (HPC) including artificial intelligence (AI), today announced the opening of its new regional headquarters in the Gulf region. This strategic expansion brings CIQ's proven HPC and AI expertise, built on decades of Linux kernel innovation and trusted by leading research institutions and enterprises worldwide, to support the Middle East's rapid digital transformation, including Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030.

Founded by open-source pioneer Gregory Kurtzer, co-founder of CentOS and founder of Rocky Linux, CIQ has established itself as a driving force in the convergence of traditional HPC and modern AI workloads. The company's portfolio, including Rocky Linux from CIQ and its AI (RLC-AI) and Hardened (RLC-H) variants, Fuzzball, Warewulf Pro and Ascender Pro, powers performance-intensive computing infrastructure from the operating system up, enabling organizations to deploy secure and scalable digital infrastructure without vendor lock-in. For more information on Rocky Linux from CIQ and the rest of the CIQ product portfolio, visit: https://ciq.com/products/rocky-linux/.

CIQ's entry into the Gulf region comes at a pivotal moment when the Middle East is investing heavily in AI infrastructure, data sovereignty and giga-scale projects that demand the same level of performance, security and transparency that has defined HPC environments for decades. The company's deep roots in the global HPC community, combined with recent innovations like RLC-AI and its collaboration with NVIDIA to integrate CUDA natively, position CIQ uniquely to support the region's transition from traditional enterprise computing to AI-driven, performance-intensive workloads.

Rocky Linux has rapidly become the dominant Enterprise Linux platform, capturing over 40% of the market (1) despite launching only four years ago. CIQ's commercial offerings build on this foundation with enterprise-grade support, security hardening and AI-optimized kernel enhancements that reduce deployment time from weeks to minutes.

From its new regional hub in the Middle East, CIQ will deliver solutions specifically designed for the unique demands of Gulf organizations:

• AI-Ready Infrastructure: RLC-AI provides out-of-the-box kernel-level and user-space optimizations for AI model training, tuning and inference, eliminating weeks of manual configuration.
• Secure Software Supply Chain: RLC-H delivers proactively secured, compliant systems through validated supply chains for government, energy, manufacturing, healthcare, aerospace, defense and financial sectors.
• HPC-Grade Performance: Fuzzball, Apptainer (formerly Singularity) and Warewulf Pro enable federated computing across hybrid cloud and on-prem environments, and bring decades of HPC cluster management expertise to modern AI workloads.
• Full Stack Control: From the operating system through containers, orchestration and workload management, CIQ's open-source foundation ensures transparency, data sovereignty and freedom from vendor lock-in.

The regional office will also establish training and certification programs for Gulf-based developers, partner with universities and research centers, and build local engineering capacity to support enterprise customers.

Adam Jackson has been appointed regional head, responsible for leading CIQ's growth and partnerships across the Gulf and Middle East region. "The future of computing in the Middle East will be defined by organizations that control their infrastructure from the base OS to AI at scale," said Jackson. "CIQ brings the performance, transparency and sovereignty that have powered US research and HPC environments for decades, now purpose-built for the AI era and the region's giga-scale ambitions."

Bjorn Hovland, chief operating officer of CIQ, commented: "The Gulf region's investments in AI infrastructure demand the performance, security and scalability that have defined HPC for decades. CIQ brings that proven expertise to the Middle East, enabling organizations to own and control their computing future from the operating system up. Our open-source foundation delivers the sovereignty and transparency these ambitious projects require, backed by enterprise-grade support that ensures long-term success."

1) Based on Fedora's publicly available EPEL repository access data, analyzed by the EPEL SIG

About CIQ
CIQ is building the next-generation secure and performant software infrastructure stack for the AI era. Founded in 2020 by open source pioneer Gregory Kurtzer, CIQ helps organizations simplify, unify and democratize high-performance computing and enterprise IT. CIQ is the founding support and services partner of Rocky Linux and the creator of products like Fuzzball, Warewulf, Ascender and Rocky Linux from CIQ. The company provides scalable, open infrastructure solutions that empower innovation – from the operating system up. Rooted in a community-first philosophy, CIQ is trusted by organizations modernizing for a future defined by data and AI inferencing. Learn more at https://ciq.com.

For media inquiries:
Europe and Middle East
Justin Doherty
jd@hemingtonconsulting.co.uk    0044 7768 330223

Lawrence Rosenberg
LR@hemingtonconsulting.co.uk     0044 7827 805875

North America
Robert Cathey
Cathey.co for CIQ
robert@cathey.co

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