diff --git a/mlrun/runtimes/mpijob/abstract.py b/mlrun/runtimes/mpijob/abstract.py
index f6b5d01554c..8ca23b93c33 100644
--- a/mlrun/runtimes/mpijob/abstract.py
+++ b/mlrun/runtimes/mpijob/abstract.py
@@ -88,7 +88,8 @@ def __init__(
 
 class AbstractMPIJobRuntime(KubejobRuntime, abc.ABC):
     kind = "mpijob"
-    _is_nested = False
+    # nested i.e. hyper-param loop will use the same CRD/containers (vs CRD per iteration)
+    _is_nested = True
 
     @property
     def spec(self) -> MPIResourceSpec: