diff --git a/docker/Dockerfile.multi b/docker/Dockerfile.multi
index 3753015b5ebb..fe238cb1518f 100644
--- a/docker/Dockerfile.multi
+++ b/docker/Dockerfile.multi
@@ -18,6 +18,13 @@ ARG TRITON_IMAGE=nvcr.io/nvidia/tritonserver
 ARG BASE_TAG=26.09-py3
 ARG TRITON_BASE_TAG=26.09-py3
 ARG DEVEL_IMAGE=devel
+# Tag of ${BASE_IMAGE} whose CUDA forward-compatibility driver (/usr/local/cuda-<ver>/compat)
+# replaces the base image's own; it must ship the same CUDA toolkit version as BASE_TAG. The
+# 26.09-py3 compat driver (615.71.09) runs the trtllm-gen context FMHA kernels ~10% slower on
+# GB200 than the 26.08-py3 one (615.65.02). Set it equal to BASE_TAG to keep the base image's own.
+ARG CUDA_COMPAT_TAG=26.08-py3
+
+FROM ${BASE_IMAGE}:${CUDA_COMPAT_TAG} AS cuda_compat
 
 FROM ${BASE_IMAGE}:${BASE_TAG} AS base
 
@@ -72,6 +79,14 @@ RUN --mount=type=bind,source=docker/common,target=/opt/docker/common \
     bash /opt/docker/common/install.sh --base --cmake --ccache --cuda_toolkit \
          --cuda_libs --polygraphy --mpi4py --pytorch
 
+ARG BASE_TAG
+ARG CUDA_COMPAT_TAG
+RUN --mount=type=bind,source=docker/common,target=/opt/docker/common \
+    --mount=type=bind,from=cuda_compat,source=/usr/local,target=/tmp/cuda_compat_usr_local \
+    if [ "${CUDA_COMPAT_TAG}" != "${BASE_TAG}" ]; then \
+        bash /opt/docker/common/install_cuda_compat.sh /tmp/cuda_compat_usr_local; \
+    fi
+
 # Install constraints after install.sh so cleanup() doesn't delete the file mid-RUN
 COPY constraints.txt /tmp/constraints.txt
 RUN --mount=type=cache,target=/root/.cache/pip \
diff --git a/docker/Makefile b/docker/Makefile
index dcc11fc291d7..dba8258d87b9 100644
--- a/docker/Makefile
+++ b/docker/Makefile
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ BASE_IMAGE         ?= $(shell grep '^ARG BASE_IMAGE=' Dockerfile.multi | grep -o
 BASE_TAG           ?= $(shell grep '^ARG BASE_TAG=' Dockerfile.multi | grep -o '=.*' | tr -d '="')
 TRITON_IMAGE       ?= $(shell grep '^ARG TRITON_IMAGE=' Dockerfile.multi | grep -o '=.*' | tr -d '="')
 TRITON_BASE_TAG    ?= $(shell grep '^ARG TRITON_BASE_TAG=' Dockerfile.multi | grep -o '=.*' | tr -d '="')
+CUDA_COMPAT_TAG    ?= $(shell grep '^ARG CUDA_COMPAT_TAG=' Dockerfile.multi | grep -o '=.*' | tr -d '="')
 # Name of the new image
 IMAGE_NAME         ?= tensorrt_llm
 IMAGE_TAG          ?= latest
@@ -99,6 +100,7 @@ base_pull:
 		$(if $(BASE_TAG), --build-arg BASE_TAG=$(BASE_TAG)) \
 		$(if $(TRITON_IMAGE), --build-arg TRITON_IMAGE=$(TRITON_IMAGE)) \
 		$(if $(TRITON_BASE_TAG), --build-arg TRITON_BASE_TAG=$(TRITON_BASE_TAG)) \
+		$(if $(CUDA_COMPAT_TAG), --build-arg CUDA_COMPAT_TAG=$(CUDA_COMPAT_TAG)) \
 		$(if $(BUILD_WHEEL_ARGS), --build-arg BUILD_WHEEL_ARGS="$(BUILD_WHEEL_ARGS)") \
 		$(if $(BUILD_WHEEL_SCRIPT), --build-arg BUILD_WHEEL_SCRIPT="$(BUILD_WHEEL_SCRIPT)") \
 		$(if $(TORCH_INSTALL_TYPE), --build-arg TORCH_INSTALL_TYPE="$(TORCH_INSTALL_TYPE)") \
@@ -207,20 +209,24 @@ jenkins-rockylinux8_%: IMAGE_WITH_TAG = $(shell . ../jenkins/current_image_tags.
 jenkins-rockylinux8_%: STAGE = tritondevel
 jenkins-rockylinux8_%: BASE_IMAGE = nvcr.io/nvidia/cuda
 jenkins-rockylinux8_%: BASE_TAG = 13.4.1-devel-rockylinux8
+jenkins-rockylinux8_%: CUDA_COMPAT_TAG = $(BASE_TAG)
 
 rockylinux8_%: STAGE = tritondevel
 rockylinux8_%: BASE_IMAGE = nvcr.io/nvidia/cuda
 rockylinux8_%: BASE_TAG = 13.4.1-devel-rockylinux8
+rockylinux8_%: CUDA_COMPAT_TAG = $(BASE_TAG)
 
 # For x86_64
 ubuntu22_%: STAGE = tritondevel
 ubuntu22_%: BASE_IMAGE = nvcr.io/nvidia/cuda
 ubuntu22_%: BASE_TAG = 13.4.1-devel-ubuntu22.04
+ubuntu22_%: CUDA_COMPAT_TAG = $(BASE_TAG)
 
 # For x86_64 and aarch64
 ubuntu24_%: STAGE = tritondevel
 ubuntu24_%: BASE_IMAGE = nvcr.io/nvidia/cuda
 ubuntu24_%: BASE_TAG = 13.4.1-devel-ubuntu24.04
+ubuntu24_%: CUDA_COMPAT_TAG = $(BASE_TAG)
 
 trtllm_%: STAGE = release
 trtllm_%: PUSH_TO_STAGING := 0
diff --git a/docker/common/install_cuda_compat.sh b/docker/common/install_cuda_compat.sh
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..c9e72cd73aac
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docker/common/install_cuda_compat.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,60 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+# Copyright (c) 2026, NVIDIA CORPORATION. All rights reserved.
+#
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+# You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+#     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+# limitations under the License.
+
+# Replace this image's CUDA forward-compatibility driver with the one from another image.
+#
+# Usage: install_cuda_compat.sh <source /usr/local>
+#
+# <source /usr/local> is the /usr/local tree of the image that provides the compat driver. Only
+# the driver libraries under /usr/local/cuda-<major.minor>/compat (lib.real, and lib.real-nvgpu
+# where present) are replaced; the CUDA toolkit is untouched, so the source image must ship the
+# same CUDA major.minor as this one. The base image's shell init (/etc/shinit_v2) checks and
+# selects the compat driver from that directory at container start, so nothing else changes.
+
+set -euo pipefail
+
+SRC_USR_LOCAL="${1:?usage: install_cuda_compat.sh <source /usr/local>}"
+
+CUDA_DIR="$(readlink -f /usr/local/cuda)"
+CUDA_DIR_NAME="$(basename "${CUDA_DIR}")"
+DST_COMPAT="${CUDA_DIR}/compat"
+SRC_COMPAT="${SRC_USR_LOCAL}/${CUDA_DIR_NAME}/compat"
+
+if ! ls "${SRC_COMPAT}"/lib.real/libcuda.so.* >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+    echo "No ${CUDA_DIR_NAME}/compat/lib.real/libcuda.so.* in the compat source image; it must" \
+         "ship the same CUDA version as this image (${CUDA_DIR_NAME})." >&2
+    exit 1
+fi
+if ! ls "${DST_COMPAT}"/lib.real/libcuda.so.* >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+    echo "This image has no ${DST_COMPAT}/lib.real/libcuda.so.*; nothing to replace." >&2
+    exit 1
+fi
+
+echo "Replacing CUDA compat driver $(basename "$(ls "${DST_COMPAT}"/lib.real/libcuda.so.*.* | head -1)")" \
+     "with $(basename "$(ls "${SRC_COMPAT}"/lib.real/libcuda.so.*.* | head -1)"):"
+for entry in lib.real lib.real-nvgpu; do
+    rm -rf "${DST_COMPAT:?}/${entry}"
+    if [ -d "${SRC_COMPAT}/${entry}" ]; then
+        cp -a "${SRC_COMPAT}/${entry}" "${DST_COMPAT}/${entry}"
+    fi
+done
+# The shell init skips its compat check on hosts with a `.<driver>.<host>.checked` marker; drop
+# markers recorded against the replaced driver so the check runs against this one.
+find "${DST_COMPAT}" -maxdepth 1 -name '.*.checked' -delete
+
+ldconfig
+test -e "${DST_COMPAT}/lib.real/libcuda.so.1"
+ls -l "${DST_COMPAT}"/lib.real/libcuda.so.*
diff --git a/jenkins/current_image_tags.properties b/jenkins/current_image_tags.properties
index 428f962e04f1..bbf9b59e08ab 100644
--- a/jenkins/current_image_tags.properties
+++ b/jenkins/current_image_tags.properties
@@ -13,8 +13,8 @@
 #     images are adopted from PostMerge pipelines, the abbreviated commit hash is used instead.
 IMAGE_NAME=artifactory.nvidia.com/sw-tensorrt-llm-docker-local/tensorrt-llm
 
-LLM_DOCKER_IMAGE=artifactory.nvidia.com/sw-tensorrt-llm-docker-local/tensorrt-llm:pytorch-26.09-py3-x86_64-ubuntu24.04-skip-tritondevel-202610130652-20175
-LLM_SBSA_DOCKER_IMAGE=artifactory.nvidia.com/sw-tensorrt-llm-docker-local/tensorrt-llm:pytorch-26.09-py3-sbsa-ubuntu24.04-skip-tritondevel-202610130652-20175
-LLM_ROCKYLINUX8_PY310_DOCKER_IMAGE=artifactory.nvidia.com/sw-tensorrt-llm-docker-local/tensorrt-llm:cuda-13.4.1-devel-rocky8-x86_64-rocky8-py310-skip-tritondevel-202610130652-20175
-LLM_ROCKYLINUX8_PY312_DOCKER_IMAGE=artifactory.nvidia.com/sw-tensorrt-llm-docker-local/tensorrt-llm:cuda-13.4.1-devel-rocky8-x86_64-rocky8-py312-skip-tritondevel-202610130652-20175
-LLM_SBSA_WHEEL_DOCKER_IMAGE=artifactory.nvidia.com/sw-tensorrt-llm-docker-local/tensorrt-llm:cuda-13.4.1-devel-ubuntu24.04-sbsa-ubuntu24.04-py312-skip-tritondevel-202610130652-20175
+LLM_DOCKER_IMAGE=artifactory.nvidia.com/sw-tensorrt-llm-docker-local/tensorrt-llm:pytorch-26.09-py3-x86_64-ubuntu24.04-skip-tritondevel-202610150933-20252
+LLM_SBSA_DOCKER_IMAGE=artifactory.nvidia.com/sw-tensorrt-llm-docker-local/tensorrt-llm:pytorch-26.09-py3-sbsa-ubuntu24.04-skip-tritondevel-202610150933-20252
+LLM_ROCKYLINUX8_PY310_DOCKER_IMAGE=artifactory.nvidia.com/sw-tensorrt-llm-docker-local/tensorrt-llm:cuda-13.4.1-devel-rocky8-x86_64-rocky8-py310-skip-tritondevel-202610150933-20252
+LLM_ROCKYLINUX8_PY312_DOCKER_IMAGE=artifactory.nvidia.com/sw-tensorrt-llm-docker-local/tensorrt-llm:cuda-13.4.1-devel-rocky8-x86_64-rocky8-py312-skip-tritondevel-202610150933-20252
+LLM_SBSA_WHEEL_DOCKER_IMAGE=artifactory.nvidia.com/sw-tensorrt-llm-docker-local/tensorrt-llm:cuda-13.4.1-devel-ubuntu24.04-sbsa-ubuntu24.04-py312-skip-tritondevel-202610150933-20252