How to Rewrite Apache Spark UDFs for GPU Acceleration with AI Agents

The NVIDIA cuDF plugin for Apache Spark enables GPU acceleration of data analytics by converting user‑defined functions (UDFs) into SQL expressions, Rapids UDFs via the cuDF Java API, or custom CUDA kernels accessed through JNI, eliminating CPU fall‑back and achieving over 20× performance gains. Its agent‑driven “cuDF skills” workflow guides developers through testing, conversion, benchmarking, and optimisation with verification feedback, allowing production teams—such as a major consumer‑tech company—to rewrite more than 30 UDFs and cut operator time from 274 hours to 13 hours on a 600‑billion‑row workload. This approach demonstrates significant cost‑of‑ownership reductions and throughput improvements for GPU‑accelerated Spark pipelines.

Source: NVIDIA Developer | 2026-10-13