diff --git a/.github/scripts/aiter_prebuild_upload.sh b/.github/scripts/aiter_prebuild_upload.sh
index fc13d12ee..7178223a4 100755
--- a/.github/scripts/aiter_prebuild_upload.sh
+++ b/.github/scripts/aiter_prebuild_upload.sh
@@ -54,12 +54,8 @@ if [[ "${1:-}" == "--build" ]]; then
 fi
 
 # Ensure built libs exist
-if [[ ! -f "${EXTRACT_DIR}/libmha_fwd.so" ]]; then
-  echo "[AITER-PREBUILT] Missing libmha_fwd.so in ${EXTRACT_DIR}" >&2
-  exit 1
-fi
-if [[ ! -f "${EXTRACT_DIR}/libmha_bwd.so" ]]; then
-  echo "[AITER-PREBUILT] Missing libmha_bwd.so in ${EXTRACT_DIR}" >&2
+if [[ ! -f "${EXTRACT_DIR}/libmha.a" ]]; then
+  echo "[AITER-PREBUILT] Missing libmha.a in ${EXTRACT_DIR}" >&2
   exit 1
 fi
 
diff --git a/3rdparty/aiter b/3rdparty/aiter
index 0f8033631..c67d3fcbe 160000
--- a/3rdparty/aiter
+++ b/3rdparty/aiter
@@ -1 +1 @@
-Subproject commit 0f80336315b8fcf5ec154bf2f661375b5ac51043
+Subproject commit c67d3fcbee2ca4462202c2b42151e79ce2d26bb8
diff --git a/transformer_engine/common/ck_fused_attn/CMakeLists.txt b/transformer_engine/common/ck_fused_attn/CMakeLists.txt
index b3ec4db73..baae36bed 100644
--- a/transformer_engine/common/ck_fused_attn/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/transformer_engine/common/ck_fused_attn/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD 17)
 project(ck_fused_attn LANGUAGES HIP CXX)
 
 
-set(AITER_MHA_INSTALL_PREFIX "transformer_engine" CACHE STRING "aiter mha shared lib install prefix in TE")
+set(AITER_MHA_INSTALL_PREFIX "transformer_engine" CACHE STRING "aiter mha install prefix in TE")
 
 set(__AITER_SOURCE_DIR "${CMAKE_CURRENT_LIST_DIR}/../../../3rdparty/aiter")
 set(__CK_SOURCE_DIR "${__AITER_SOURCE_DIR}/3rdparty/composable_kernel")
@@ -56,13 +56,13 @@ list(JOIN V3_ASM_ARCHS ";" V3_ASM_ARCHS_STR)
 
 if(DEFINED AITER_MHA_PATH)
   message(STATUS "[AITER-BUILD] Using AITER_MHA_PATH=${AITER_MHA_PATH}")
-  # use pre-built libmha_fwd.so libmha_bwd.so
+  # use pre-built libraries
   set(__AITER_MHA_PATH ${AITER_MHA_PATH})
 else()
   set(__AITER_MHA_PATH "")
   include("${CMAKE_CURRENT_LIST_DIR}/aiter_prebuilt.cmake")
   get_prebuilt_aiter(__AITER_MHA_PATH)
-
+    
   if(__AITER_MHA_PATH STREQUAL "")
     # If not available, fallback: Build from source
     message(STATUS "[AITER-BUILD] Building aiter from source.")
@@ -73,10 +73,19 @@ else()
               --install-dir ${__AITER_MHA_PATH}
               --gpu-archs "${V3_ASM_ARCHS_STR}"
               --ck-tile-bf16 ${CK_FUSED_ATTN_FLOAT_TO_BFLOAT16_DEFAULT}
+      RESULT_VARIABLE AITER_BUILD_RESULT
     )
-  else()
-    message(STATUS "[AITER-BUILD] Using pre-built AITER from ${__AITER_MHA_PATH}")
+    if(NOT AITER_BUILD_RESULT EQUAL 0)
+      message(FATAL_ERROR "[AITER-BUILD] aiter_build.sh failed with exit code ${AITER_BUILD_RESULT}")
+    endif()
+    # Validate the source build produced the expected files
+    foreach(REQUIRED_FILE IN LISTS AITER_PREBUILT_REQUIRED_FILES)
+      if(NOT EXISTS "${__AITER_MHA_PATH}/${REQUIRED_FILE}")
+        message(FATAL_ERROR "[AITER-BUILD] Source build completed but ${REQUIRED_FILE} is missing from ${__AITER_MHA_PATH}")
+      endif()
+    endforeach()
   endif()
+  message(STATUS "[AITER-BUILD] Using __AITER_MHA_PATH=${__AITER_MHA_PATH}")
 endif()
 
 set(ck_fused_attn_SOURCES)
@@ -122,14 +131,16 @@ endif()
 target_include_directories(ck_fused_attn PUBLIC "${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/include")
 target_include_directories(ck_fused_attn PRIVATE ${CK_INCLUDE_DIR} ${__CK_SOURCE_DIR}/example/ck_tile/01_fmha)
 target_include_directories(ck_fused_attn PRIVATE ${AITER_INCLUDE_DIR})
+target_link_options(ck_fused_attn PRIVATE -Wl,--exclude-libs,ALL)
 
+set(__AITER_MHA_LIB "${__AITER_MHA_PATH}/libmha.a")
 find_package(hip)
-list(APPEND ck_fused_attn_LINKER_LIBS hip::host hip::device roctx64 ${__AITER_MHA_PATH}/libmha_fwd.so ${__AITER_MHA_PATH}/libmha_bwd.so)
+list(APPEND ck_fused_attn_LINKER_LIBS hip::host hip::device roctx64 ${__AITER_MHA_LIB})
+
 target_link_libraries(ck_fused_attn PUBLIC ${ck_fused_attn_LINKER_LIBS})
 target_compile_options(ck_fused_attn PRIVATE ${CK_FUSED_ATTN_COMPILE_OPTIONS})
 set_target_properties(ck_fused_attn PROPERTIES INSTALL_RPATH "$ORIGIN")
 
-install(FILES ${__AITER_MHA_PATH}/libmha_fwd.so ${__AITER_MHA_PATH}/libmha_bwd.so DESTINATION ${CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX}/${AITER_MHA_INSTALL_PREFIX}/lib)
 install(TARGETS ck_fused_attn DESTINATION ${CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX}/${AITER_MHA_INSTALL_PREFIX}/lib)
 # copy v3 kernels to destination
 foreach(ARCH IN LISTS V3_ASM_ARCHS)
diff --git a/transformer_engine/common/ck_fused_attn/aiter_build.sh b/transformer_engine/common/ck_fused_attn/aiter_build.sh
index d04a12c94..54e8a1f9c 100644
--- a/transformer_engine/common/ck_fused_attn/aiter_build.sh
+++ b/transformer_engine/common/ck_fused_attn/aiter_build.sh
@@ -50,7 +50,52 @@ CK_TILE_FLOAT_TO_BFLOAT16_DEFAULT="${CK_TILE_BF16_DEFAULT}" \
 GPU_ARCHS="${GPU_ARCHS_VAL}" \
 python3 "${AITER_TEST_DIR}/compile.py"
 
+# Check for ar and ranlib
+AR_BIN="${AR:-$(command -v ar || true)}"
+RANLIB_BIN="${RANLIB:-$(command -v ranlib || true)}"
+if [[ -z "${AR_BIN}" ]]; then
+  echo "[AITER-BUILD] Could not find ar for static archive generation." >&2
+  exit 1
+fi
+if [[ -z "${RANLIB_BIN}" ]]; then
+  echo "[AITER-BUILD] Could not find ranlib for static archive generation." >&2
+  exit 1
+fi
+
+# Create a single unified static archive from both forward and backward object files
+out_archive="${AITER_TEST_DIR}/libmha.a"
+obj_list=$(mktemp)
+rm -f "${obj_list}"
+
+for lib in fwd bwd; do
+  src_obj_dir="${AITER_DIR}/aiter/jit/build/libmha_${lib}/build"
+  if [[ ! -d "${src_obj_dir}" ]]; then
+    echo "[AITER-BUILD] Missing object directory: ${src_obj_dir}" >&2
+    rm -f "${obj_list}"
+    exit 1
+  fi
+  find "${src_obj_dir}" -type f -name '*.o' >> "${obj_list}"
+done
+
+total_objs=$(wc -l < "${obj_list}")
+if [[ "${total_objs}" -eq 0 ]]; then
+  echo "[AITER-BUILD] No object files found for fwd/bwd" >&2
+  rm -f "${obj_list}"
+  exit 1
+fi
+
+rm -f "${out_archive}"
+# Use a file list to avoid ARG_MAX limits with thousands of object files
+"${AR_BIN}" qc "${out_archive}" @"${obj_list}"
+
+if [[ -n "${RANLIB_BIN}" ]]; then
+  "${RANLIB_BIN}" "${out_archive}"
+fi
+
+echo "[AITER-BUILD] Created static archive: ${out_archive} (${total_objs} objects)"
+rm -f "${obj_list}"
+
 if [ -n "${INSTALL_DIR}" ]; then
   mkdir -p "${INSTALL_DIR}"
-  cp "${AITER_TEST_DIR}/libmha_fwd.so" "${AITER_TEST_DIR}/libmha_bwd.so" "${INSTALL_DIR}/"
+  cp "${out_archive}" "${INSTALL_DIR}/"
 fi
diff --git a/transformer_engine/common/ck_fused_attn/aiter_prebuilt.cmake b/transformer_engine/common/ck_fused_attn/aiter_prebuilt.cmake
index e52e2c948..c196c3d74 100644
--- a/transformer_engine/common/ck_fused_attn/aiter_prebuilt.cmake
+++ b/transformer_engine/common/ck_fused_attn/aiter_prebuilt.cmake
@@ -32,13 +32,25 @@ function(get_aiter_cache_key ROCM_VER_PARAM KEY_VAR CACHE_DIR_VAR)
   set(${CACHE_DIR_VAR} "${AITER_CACHE_ROOT}/${_KEY}" PARENT_SCOPE)
 endfunction()
 
+# Required files that must be present in a valid AITER prebuilt cache
+set(AITER_PREBUILT_REQUIRED_FILES
+  "libmha.a"
+)
+
 # Validate existing cache path
 function(is_aiter_cache_valid ROCM_VER_PARAM CACHE_VALID)
   get_aiter_cache_key("${ROCM_VER_PARAM}" KEY EXTRACT_DIR)
-  if(EXISTS "${EXTRACT_DIR}/libmha_fwd.so" AND EXISTS "${EXTRACT_DIR}/libmha_bwd.so")
-    set(${CACHE_VALID} TRUE PARENT_SCOPE)
-    message(STATUS "[AITER-PREBUILT] Found Cached build files at ${EXTRACT_DIR}")
+  if(NOT EXISTS "${EXTRACT_DIR}")
+    return()
   endif()
+  foreach(REQUIRED_FILE IN LISTS AITER_PREBUILT_REQUIRED_FILES)
+    if(NOT EXISTS "${EXTRACT_DIR}/${REQUIRED_FILE}")
+      message(WARNING "[AITER-PREBUILT] Cache at ${EXTRACT_DIR} is missing ${REQUIRED_FILE}")
+      return()
+    endif()
+  endforeach()
+  set(${CACHE_VALID} TRUE PARENT_SCOPE)
+  message(STATUS "[AITER-PREBUILT] Found valid cached build files at ${EXTRACT_DIR}")
 endfunction()
 
 # Main function to get prebuilt aiter libs. 
@@ -56,7 +68,7 @@ function(get_prebuilt_aiter PREBUILT_DIR_VAR)
   endforeach()
   
   # Cache is invalid/outdated - clean it and some build files that depend on AITER libs path
-  file(REMOVE_RECURSE "${AITER_CACHE_ROOT}")
+  file(REMOVE_RECURSE "${EXTRACT_DIR}")
   file(REMOVE_RECURSE "${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/_deps")
 
   #TODO: remove ROCM_VER from the check once the change is integrated to all features modifying AITER
@@ -107,5 +119,15 @@ function(download_aiter_prebuilt ROCM_VER_PARAM DOWNLOAD_SUCCESS)
   # Download & extract prebuilt files
   FetchContent_MakeAvailable(aiter_prebuilt)
   message(STATUS "[AITER-PREBUILT] Successfully downloaded to ${EXTRACT_DIR}")
+
+  # Validate downloaded contents before declaring success
+  foreach(REQUIRED_FILE IN LISTS AITER_PREBUILT_REQUIRED_FILES)
+    if(NOT EXISTS "${EXTRACT_DIR}/${REQUIRED_FILE}")
+      message(WARNING "[AITER-PREBUILT] Downloaded cache is missing ${REQUIRED_FILE} — discarding and falling back to source build.")
+      file(REMOVE_RECURSE "${EXTRACT_DIR}")
+      return()
+    endif()
+  endforeach()
+  message(STATUS "[AITER-PREBUILT] Downloaded cache validated successfully.")
   set(${DOWNLOAD_SUCCESS} TRUE PARENT_SCOPE)
 endfunction()