diff --git a/megatron/core/models/mimo/model/base.py b/megatron/core/models/mimo/model/base.py
index 334a7883d92..e52e9ab8258 100644
--- a/megatron/core/models/mimo/model/base.py
+++ b/megatron/core/models/mimo/model/base.py
@@ -278,6 +278,19 @@ def set_input_tensor(self, input_tensor):
         if self.language_model is not None and hasattr(self.language_model, 'set_input_tensor'):
             self.language_model.set_input_tensor(input_tensor)
 
+    def _active_submodules(self):
+        """Yield this rank's present submodules."""
+        if self.language_model is not None:
+            yield self.language_model
+        for submodule in self.modality_submodules.values():
+            if submodule is not None:
+                yield submodule
+
+    def zero_grad_buffer(self):
+        """Zero each active submodule's DDP grad buffer."""
+        for module in self._active_submodules():
+            module.zero_grad_buffer()
+
     def get_text_embeddings(
         self, input_ids: torch.Tensor, position_ids: torch.Tensor, special_token_ids: Dict[str, int]
     ) -> torch.Tensor:
diff --git a/tests/unit_tests/models/mimo/test_mimo_zero_grad_buffer.py b/tests/unit_tests/models/mimo/test_mimo_zero_grad_buffer.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..ba7fb8d6fa4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/unit_tests/models/mimo/test_mimo_zero_grad_buffer.py
@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+# Copyright (c) 2026, NVIDIA CORPORATION. All rights reserved.
+
+"""CPU-only tests for MimoModel.zero_grad_buffer fan-out."""
+
+from types import SimpleNamespace
+from unittest.mock import MagicMock
+
+from megatron.core.models.mimo.model.base import MimoModel
+
+
+def _stub(language_model, modality_submodules):
+    """Minimal stand-in carrying the real zero_grad_buffer / _active_submodules."""
+    stub = SimpleNamespace(language_model=language_model, modality_submodules=modality_submodules)
+    stub.zero_grad_buffer = MimoModel.zero_grad_buffer.__get__(stub)
+    stub._active_submodules = MimoModel._active_submodules.__get__(stub)
+    return stub
+
+
+def test_zero_grad_buffer_fans_out_to_present_submodules():
+    language_model = MagicMock()
+    vision = MagicMock()
+    _stub(language_model, {"vision": vision}).zero_grad_buffer()
+
+    language_model.zero_grad_buffer.assert_called_once_with()
+    vision.zero_grad_buffer.assert_called_once_with()
+
+
+def test_zero_grad_buffer_skips_none_submodules():
+    vision = MagicMock()
+    # Encoder-only rank: language_model is None, plus a None modality entry.
+    _stub(None, {"vision": vision, "audio": None}).zero_grad_buffer()
+
+    vision.zero_grad_buffer.assert_called_once_with()