diff --git a/.github/workflows/desktop-release.yml b/.github/workflows/desktop-release.yml
index 1d393fed1..0b7919a4a 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/desktop-release.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/desktop-release.yml
@@ -303,10 +303,18 @@ jobs:
       - name: Validate managed runtime bundle
         run: npm run validate:managed-runtime --workspace=@getpaseo/desktop
 
-      - name: Remove CUDA/TensorRT providers from onnxruntime
+      - name: Strip CUDA dependencies from onnxruntime
         shell: bash
         run: |
           find packages/desktop/src-tauri/resources/managed-runtime -path '*/onnxruntime-node/bin/*' \( -name '*cuda*' -o -name '*tensorrt*' \) -delete || true
+          # Remove CUDA shared library references from onnxruntime .so files so linuxdeploy
+          # doesn't try to bundle them (they're optional runtime deps, not needed for CPU inference)
+          for f in $(find packages/desktop/src-tauri/resources/managed-runtime -path '*/onnxruntime-node/bin/*' \( -name '*.so' -o -name '*.so.*' \)); do
+            for lib in $(patchelf --print-needed "$f" 2>/dev/null | grep -iE 'cublas|cudnn|cudart|cufft|curand|cusolver|cusparse|nccl|nvrtc|tensorrt|nvinfer'); do
+              echo "Removing needed $lib from $f"
+              patchelf --remove-needed "$lib" "$f"
+            done
+          done
 
       - name: Detect existing GitHub release state
         if: env.IS_SMOKE_TAG != 'true'