diff --git a/docker/Dockerfile b/docker/Dockerfile
index 2dfd81228..e6884d3b5 100644
--- a/docker/Dockerfile
+++ b/docker/Dockerfile
@@ -540,10 +540,10 @@ RUN --mount=type=cache,target=/root/.cache/pip \
 # it with --no-deps and pair it with the matching nixl-cu12 / nixl-cu13 binary
 # to avoid shipping wrong-CUDA libs on cu13 images.
 RUN --mount=type=cache,target=/root/.cache/pip if [ "${CUDA_VERSION%%.*}" = "12" ]; then \
-    python3 -m pip install nixl-cu12 --no-deps ; \
+    python3 -m pip install nixl nixl-cu12 --no-deps ; \
     python3 -m pip install cuda-python==12.9 ; \
 elif [ "${CUDA_VERSION%%.*}" = "13" ]; then \
-    python3 -m pip install nixl-cu13 --no-deps ; \
+    python3 -m pip install nixl nixl-cu13 --no-deps ; \
     python3 -m pip install cuda-python==13.2.0 ; \
 fi