Kubernetes Multi-Cluster Project Karmada Reaches CNCF Graduation

The Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) has announced that the Kubernetes multi-cluster and multi-cloud orchestration project Karmada has reached the highest maturity tier of CNCF. This graduation occurred at the KubeCon + CloudNativeCon + OpenInfra Summit + PyTorch Conference China 2026 in Shanghai, coinciding with the project's v1.19 release.

Karmada, which addresses the challenge of running workloads across multiple Kubernetes clusters, received this designation due to its stable nature, widespread adoption, and production-readiness. The project's latest update enhances multi-component scheduling for AI training jobs and promotes priority-based scheduling as a default feature.

Karmada builds upon the standard Kubernetes API, requiring no replacement of existing manifests, controllers, or tools. It comprises three core components and two custom APIs for placement logic. Internal controllers manage cluster lifecycle, policy binding, resource allocation, and manifest distribution. Over 1,214 contributors from 292 organizations have worked on Karmada, which has garnered more than 5,600 GitHub stars.

Notable production adopters include Bloomberg, Wellhub, Alibaba Cloud, Huawei, Trip.com, and Bilibili, among others. Karmada enables organizations to manage hybrid cloud environments and multi-cluster deployments without added complexity.