diff --git a/deepspeed/sequence/layer.py b/deepspeed/sequence/layer.py
index ecbe0d94120e..80023781f499 100644
--- a/deepspeed/sequence/layer.py
+++ b/deepspeed/sequence/layer.py
@@ -15,6 +15,12 @@
 from deepspeed.module_inject.tp_shard import get_shard_size_list, set_num_kv_heads, get_num_kv_heads
 from deepspeed.utils import groups
 
+try:
+    from torchembed._triton import fused_rope_forward as _torchembed_rope_forward
+    _torchembed_available = True
+except ImportError:
+    _torchembed_available = False
+
 
 def _generate_layout_params(scatter_idx, batch_dim_idx, seq_world_size, input):
     """
@@ -100,9 +106,15 @@ def apply_rotary_pos_emb(t, freqs_cos, freqs_sin):
     # ideally t_pass is empty so rotary pos embedding is applied to all tensor t
     t, t_pass = t[..., :rot_dim], t[..., rot_dim:]
 
-    # first part is cosine component
-    # second part is sine component, need to change signs with _rotate_half method
-    t = (t * freqs_cos) + (_rotate_half(t) * freqs_sin)
+    if _torchembed_available and t.is_cuda and t.device.type == 'cuda' and rot_dim % 2 == 0:
+        orig_shape = t.shape
+        t_2d = t.reshape(-1, orig_shape[-2], rot_dim)
+        t_out, _ = _torchembed_rope_forward(t_2d, t_2d, freqs_cos, freqs_sin)
+        t = t_out.reshape(orig_shape)
+    else:
+        # first part is cosine component
+        # second part is sine component, need to change signs with _rotate_half method
+        t = (t * freqs_cos) + (_rotate_half(t) * freqs_sin)
 
     res = t if t_pass.shape[-1] == 0 else torch.cat((t, t_pass), dim=-1)
     return res
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 67befe3da31b..d4819774ced0 100755
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -92,6 +92,7 @@ def get_env_if_set(key, default: typing.Any = ""):
     'sd': fetch_requirements('requirements/requirements-sd.txt'),
     'triton': fetch_requirements('requirements/requirements-triton.txt'),
     'deepcompile': fetch_requirements('requirements/requirements-deepcompile.txt'),
+    'torchembed': ['torchembed'],
 }
 
 # Only install pynvml on nvidia gpus.
diff --git a/tests/unit/sequence/test_apply_rotary_pos_emb.py b/tests/unit/sequence/test_apply_rotary_pos_emb.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..d9efcbb19397
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/unit/sequence/test_apply_rotary_pos_emb.py
@@ -0,0 +1,63 @@
+# Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation.
+# SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
+
+# DeepSpeed Team
+
+import pytest
+import torch
+
+from deepspeed.sequence.layer import apply_rotary_pos_emb, _rotate_half
+
+
+def _make_freqs(seq_len, rot_dim, theta=10000.0, device="cpu"):
+    inv_freq = 1.0 / (theta ** (torch.arange(0, rot_dim, 2, device=device).float() / rot_dim))
+    t = torch.arange(seq_len, device=device).float()
+    freqs = torch.einsum("i,j->ij", t, inv_freq)
+    emb = torch.cat((freqs, freqs), dim=-1)
+    return emb.cos(), emb.sin()
+
+
+def _ref_apply_rotary(t, freqs_cos, freqs_sin):
+    rot_dim = freqs_cos.shape[-1]
+    t, t_pass = t[..., :rot_dim], t[..., rot_dim:]
+    t = (t * freqs_cos) + (_rotate_half(t) * freqs_sin)
+    return t if t_pass.shape[-1] == 0 else torch.cat((t, t_pass), dim=-1)
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("seq_len", [1, 17, 128])
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("dim", [32, 64, 128])
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("rotary_dim", [None, 16, 32, 64])
+def test_apply_rotary_pos_emb(seq_len, dim, rotary_dim):
+    rot_dim = rotary_dim if rotary_dim is not None else dim
+    if rot_dim > dim or rot_dim % 2 != 0:
+        pytest.skip("rotary_dim must be <= dim and even")
+
+    t = torch.randn(seq_len, 4, dim)
+    freqs_cos, freqs_sin = _make_freqs(seq_len, rot_dim)
+    freqs_cos = freqs_cos[:, :rot_dim]
+    freqs_sin = freqs_sin[:, :rot_dim]
+
+    result = apply_rotary_pos_emb(t, freqs_cos, freqs_sin)
+    expected = _ref_apply_rotary(t, freqs_cos, freqs_sin)
+
+    assert torch.allclose(result, expected, atol=1e-6), (
+        f"seq_len={seq_len}, dim={dim}, rot_dim={rot_dim}: max diff={((result - expected).abs().max()).item()}"
+    )
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("dtype", [torch.float32, torch.float16])
+def test_apply_rotary_pos_emb_grad_flow(dtype):
+    seq_len, n_heads, dim = 8, 4, 64
+    rot_dim = 64
+    t = torch.randn(seq_len, n_heads, dim, dtype=dtype, requires_grad=True)
+    freqs_cos, freqs_sin = _make_freqs(seq_len, rot_dim)
+    freqs_cos = freqs_cos[:, :rot_dim]
+    freqs_sin = freqs_sin[:, :rot_dim]
+
+    out = apply_rotary_pos_emb(t, freqs_cos, freqs_sin)
+    loss = out.sum()
+    loss.backward()
+
+    assert t.grad is not None
+    assert not torch.isnan(t.grad).any(), "NaNs in gradient"
+    assert t.grad.shape == t.shape, f"grad shape {t.grad.shape} != {t.shape}"