diff --git a/src/runners/mjx.py b/src/runners/mjx.py
index ed02079..421e8bf 100644
--- a/src/runners/mjx.py
+++ b/src/runners/mjx.py
@@ -9,10 +9,17 @@ Requirements:
 """
 
 import dataclasses
+import os
 
 import structlog
 import torch
 
+# JAX (MJX physics) shares the GPU with PyTorch (policy + optimizer). By
+# default JAX preallocates ~75% of GPU memory on init, starving torch and
+# causing OOM at the first PPO update. Disable preallocation so both libraries
+# grow on demand — essential on small vGPU slices (e.g. a 6 GB HAMI slice).
+os.environ.setdefault("XLA_PYTHON_CLIENT_PREALLOCATE", "false")
+
 try:
     import jax
     import jax.numpy as jnp