diff --git a/.buildkite/test-pipeline.yaml b/.buildkite/test-pipeline.yaml
index 74b287c7..00fed96c 100644
--- a/.buildkite/test-pipeline.yaml
+++ b/.buildkite/test-pipeline.yaml
@@ -463,6 +463,7 @@ steps:
   - vllm/worker/worker.py
   - vllm/worker/model_runner.py
   commands:
+  - torchrun --nproc-per-node=2 distributed/test_torchrun_example.py
   - pytest -v -s ./compile/test_basic_correctness.py
   - pytest -v -s ./compile/test_wrapper.py
   - VLLM_TEST_SAME_HOST=1 torchrun --nproc-per-node=4 distributed/test_same_node.py | grep 'Same node test passed'
diff --git a/examples/offline_inference/torchrun_example.py b/examples/offline_inference/torchrun_example.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..b6de73eb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/examples/offline_inference/torchrun_example.py
@@ -0,0 +1,64 @@
+"""
+experimental support for tensor-parallel inference with torchrun,
+see https://github.com/vllm-project/vllm/issues/11400 for
+the motivation and use case for this example.
+run the script with `torchrun --nproc-per-node=2 torchrun_example.py`,
+the argument 2 should match the `tensor_parallel_size` below.
+see `tests/distributed/test_torchrun_example.py` for the unit test.
+"""
+
+from vllm import LLM, SamplingParams
+
+# Create prompts, the same across all ranks
+prompts = [
+    "Hello, my name is",
+    "The president of the United States is",
+    "The capital of France is",
+    "The future of AI is",
+]
+
+# Create sampling parameters, the same across all ranks
+sampling_params = SamplingParams(temperature=0.8, top_p=0.95)
+
+# Use `distributed_executor_backend="external_launcher"` so that
+# this llm engine/instance only creates one worker.
+llm = LLM(
+    model="facebook/opt-125m",
+    tensor_parallel_size=2,
+    distributed_executor_backend="external_launcher",
+)
+
+outputs = llm.generate(prompts, sampling_params)
+
+# all ranks will have the same outputs
+for output in outputs:
+    prompt = output.prompt
+    generated_text = output.outputs[0].text
+    print(f"Prompt: {prompt!r}, "
+          f"Generated text: {generated_text!r}")
+"""
+Further tips:
+
+1. to communicate control messages across all ranks, use the cpu group,
+a PyTorch ProcessGroup with GLOO backend.
+
+```python
+from vllm.distributed.parallel_state import get_world_group
+cpu_group = get_world_group().cpu_group
+torch_rank = dist.get_rank(group=cpu_group)
+if torch_rank == 0:
+    # do something for rank 0, e.g. saving the results to disk.
+```
+
+2. to communicate data across all ranks, use the model's device group,
+a PyTorch ProcessGroup with NCCL backend.
+```python
+from vllm.distributed.parallel_state import get_world_group
+device_group = get_world_group().device_group
+```
+
+3. to access the model directly in every rank, use the following code:
+```python
+llm.llm_engine.model_executor.driver_worker.worker.model_runner.model
+```
+"""
diff --git a/tests/distributed/test_torchrun_example.py b/tests/distributed/test_torchrun_example.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..7aa03d7f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/distributed/test_torchrun_example.py
@@ -0,0 +1,56 @@
+# unit test for `examples/offline_inference/torchrun_example.py`
+
+import random
+
+import torch.distributed as dist
+
+from vllm import LLM, SamplingParams
+from vllm.distributed.parallel_state import get_world_group
+
+# Create prompts
+prompts = [
+    "Hello, my name is",
+    "The president of the United States is",
+    "The capital of France is",
+    "The future of AI is",
+]
+
+sampling_params = SamplingParams(temperature=0.8, top_p=0.95)
+
+# set different `gpu_memory_utilization` and `swap_space` for different ranks,
+# to test if all ranks agree on the same kv cache configuration.
+llm = LLM(model="facebook/opt-125m",
+          tensor_parallel_size=2,
+          distributed_executor_backend="external_launcher",
+          gpu_memory_utilization=random.uniform(0.7, 0.9),
+          swap_space=random.randint(1, 4))
+
+outputs = llm.generate(prompts, sampling_params)
+
+cpu_group = get_world_group().cpu_group
+
+torch_rank = dist.get_rank(group=cpu_group)
+
+
+def test_consistent_across_ranks(obj):
+    if torch_rank == 0:
+        dist.broadcast_object_list([obj], src=0, group=cpu_group)
+    else:
+        container = [None]
+        dist.broadcast_object_list(container, src=0, group=cpu_group)
+        assert container[0] == obj
+
+
+test_consistent_across_ranks(
+    llm.llm_engine.vllm_config.cache_config.num_cpu_blocks)
+test_consistent_across_ranks(
+    llm.llm_engine.vllm_config.cache_config.num_gpu_blocks)
+
+# all ranks should have the same outputs
+for output in outputs:
+    prompt = output.prompt
+    generated_text = output.outputs[0].text
+    test_consistent_across_ranks(prompt)
+    test_consistent_across_ranks(generated_text)
+    print(f"Rank {torch_rank}, Prompt: {prompt!r}, "
+          f"Generated text: {generated_text!r}")
diff --git a/tests/engine/test_multiproc_workers.py b/tests/engine/test_multiproc_workers.py
index db70a808..04505fca 100644
--- a/tests/engine/test_multiproc_workers.py
+++ b/tests/engine/test_multiproc_workers.py
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ class DummyWorkerWrapper(WorkerWrapperBase):
             # simulate error case
             raise worker_input
 
-        return self.rank, input
+        return self.rpc_rank, input
 
 
 def _start_workers() -> Tuple[List[ProcessWorkerWrapper], WorkerMonitor]:
diff --git a/vllm/config.py b/vllm/config.py
index 2fe674b8..a5f21610 100644
--- a/vllm/config.py
+++ b/vllm/config.py
@@ -1338,14 +1338,15 @@ class ParallelConfig:
         from vllm.executor.executor_base import ExecutorBase
         from vllm.platforms import current_platform
         if self.distributed_executor_backend not in (
-                "ray", "mp", "uni", None) and not (isinstance(
+                "ray", "mp", "uni",
+                "external_launcher", None) and not (isinstance(
                     self.distributed_executor_backend, type) and issubclass(
                         self.distributed_executor_backend, ExecutorBase)):
             raise ValueError(
                 "Unrecognized distributed executor backend "
                 f"{self.distributed_executor_backend}. Supported "
-                "values are 'ray', 'mp' 'uni', or custom ExecutorBase"
-                " subclass.")
+                "values are 'ray', 'mp' 'uni', 'external_launcher' or"
+                " custom ExecutorBase subclass.")
         if self.use_ray:
             from vllm.executor import ray_utils
             ray_utils.assert_ray_available()
diff --git a/vllm/engine/arg_utils.py b/vllm/engine/arg_utils.py
index 03a8959a..a4f4c955 100644
--- a/vllm/engine/arg_utils.py
+++ b/vllm/engine/arg_utils.py
@@ -388,7 +388,7 @@ class EngineArgs:
         # Parallel arguments
         parser.add_argument(
             '--distributed-executor-backend',
-            choices=['ray', 'mp'],
+            choices=['ray', 'mp', 'uni', 'external_launcher'],
             default=EngineArgs.distributed_executor_backend,
             help='Backend to use for distributed model '
             'workers, either "ray" or "mp" (multiprocessing). If the product '
diff --git a/vllm/engine/llm_engine.py b/vllm/engine/llm_engine.py
index 49a1e9f5..5d19ce03 100644
--- a/vllm/engine/llm_engine.py
+++ b/vllm/engine/llm_engine.py
@@ -457,6 +457,11 @@ class LLMEngine:
                 # JAX-style, single-process, multi-device executor.
                 from vllm.executor.uniproc_executor import UniProcExecutor
                 executor_class = UniProcExecutor
+            elif distributed_executor_backend == "external_launcher":
+                # executor with external launcher
+                from vllm.executor.uniproc_executor import (  # noqa
+                    ExecutorWithExternalLauncher)
+                executor_class = ExecutorWithExternalLauncher
         else:
             from vllm.executor.uniproc_executor import UniProcExecutor
             executor_class = UniProcExecutor
diff --git a/vllm/executor/ray_distributed_executor.py b/vllm/executor/ray_distributed_executor.py
index edceece4..3baeb639 100644
--- a/vllm/executor/ray_distributed_executor.py
+++ b/vllm/executor/ray_distributed_executor.py
@@ -172,7 +172,7 @@ class RayDistributedExecutor(DistributedExecutorBase):
                     scheduling_strategy=scheduling_strategy,
                     **ray_remote_kwargs,
                 )(RayWorkerWrapper).remote(vllm_config=self.vllm_config,
-                                           rank=rank)
+                                           rpc_rank=rank)
             else:
                 worker = ray.remote(
                     num_cpus=0,
@@ -181,7 +181,7 @@ class RayDistributedExecutor(DistributedExecutorBase):
                     scheduling_strategy=scheduling_strategy,
                     **ray_remote_kwargs,
                 )(RayWorkerWrapper).remote(vllm_config=self.vllm_config,
-                                           rank=rank)
+                                           rpc_rank=rank)
             worker_metadata.append(
                 RayWorkerMetaData(worker=worker, created_rank=rank))
             rank += 1
@@ -204,7 +204,7 @@ class RayDistributedExecutor(DistributedExecutorBase):
                     # as the resource holder for the driver process.
                     self.driver_dummy_worker = worker
                     self.driver_worker = RayWorkerWrapper(
-                        vllm_config=self.vllm_config, rank=0)
+                        vllm_config=self.vllm_config, rpc_rank=0)
                     worker_metadata.pop(i)
                     break
 
diff --git a/vllm/executor/uniproc_executor.py b/vllm/executor/uniproc_executor.py
index da1d7734..27b83e95 100644
--- a/vllm/executor/uniproc_executor.py
+++ b/vllm/executor/uniproc_executor.py
@@ -1,5 +1,10 @@
+import os
 from typing import Any, Dict, List, Optional, Tuple
 
+import torch
+import torch.distributed as dist
+
+import vllm.envs as envs
 from vllm.executor.executor_base import ExecutorBase
 from vllm.logger import init_logger
 from vllm.utils import get_distributed_init_method, get_ip, get_open_port
@@ -16,7 +21,7 @@ class UniProcExecutor(ExecutorBase):
         """Initialize the worker and load the model.
         """
         self.driver_worker = WorkerWrapperBase(vllm_config=self.vllm_config,
-                                               rank=0)
+                                               rpc_rank=0)
         distributed_init_method = get_distributed_init_method(
             get_ip(), get_open_port())
         local_rank = 0
@@ -55,3 +60,77 @@ class UniProcExecutor(ExecutorBase):
 
 
 UniProcExecutorAsync = UniProcExecutor
+
+
+class ExecutorWithExternalLauncher(UniProcExecutor):
+    """An executor that uses external launchers to launch engines,
+    specially designed for torchrun-compatible launchers, for
+    offline inference with tensor parallelism.
+
+    see https://github.com/vllm-project/vllm/issues/11400 for
+    the motivation, and examples/offline_inference/torchrun_example.py
+    for the usage example.
+
+    The key idea: although it is tensor-parallel inference, we only
+    create one worker per executor, users will launch multiple
+    engines with torchrun-compatible launchers, and all these engines
+    work together to process the same prompts. When scheduling is
+    deterministic, all the engines will generate the same outputs,
+    and they don't need to synchronize the states with each other.
+    """
+    uses_ray: bool = False
+
+    def _init_executor(self) -> None:
+        """Initialize the worker and load the model.
+        """
+        assert self.vllm_config.parallel_config.pipeline_parallel_size == 1, \
+            ("ExecutorWithExternalLauncher does not "
+            "support pipeline parallelism.")
+        assert self.vllm_config.scheduler_config.delay_factor == 0.0, \
+            ("ExecutorWithExternalLauncher needs deterministic "
+            "execution, so it"
+            "does not support delay_factor in scheduling")
+        assert not envs.VLLM_USE_V1, \
+            ("V1 architecture cannot guarantee deterministic execution, "
+            "so it is not supported in ExecutorWithExternalLauncher.")
+        self.driver_worker = WorkerWrapperBase(vllm_config=self.vllm_config,
+                                               rpc_rank=0)
+        # engines are launched in torchrun-compatible launchers
+        # so we can use the env:// method.
+        # required env vars:
+        # - RANK
+        # - MASTER_ADDR
+        # - MASTER_PORT
+        distributed_init_method = "env://"
+        rank = int(os.environ["RANK"])
+        local_rank = rank
+        is_driver_worker = True
+        kwargs = dict(
+            vllm_config=self.vllm_config,
+            local_rank=local_rank,
+            rank=rank,
+            distributed_init_method=distributed_init_method,
+            is_driver_worker=is_driver_worker,
+        )
+        self.collective_rpc("init_worker", args=([kwargs], ))
+        self.collective_rpc("init_device")
+        self.collective_rpc("load_model")
+
+    def determine_num_available_blocks(self) -> Tuple[int, int]:
+        """
+        Determine the number of available KV blocks.
+        Add an additional all_reduce to get the min across all ranks.
+        Note that even if we have the same `gpu_memory_utilization` and 
+        `swap_space`, the available memory in every rank might still 
+        differ because NCCL can take different amounts of memory in 
+        different ranks. Therefore, it is necessary to test if all ranks 
+        agree on the same KV cache configuration.
+        """
+        a, b = super().determine_num_available_blocks()
+        from vllm.distributed.parallel_state import get_world_group
+        cpu_group = get_world_group().cpu_group
+        a_tensor = torch.tensor([a], device="cpu", dtype=torch.int64)
+        b_tensor = torch.tensor([b], device="cpu", dtype=torch.int64)
+        dist.all_reduce(a_tensor, group=cpu_group, op=dist.ReduceOp.MIN)
+        dist.all_reduce(b_tensor, group=cpu_group, op=dist.ReduceOp.MIN)
+        return a_tensor.item(), b_tensor.item()
diff --git a/vllm/lora/layers.py b/vllm/lora/layers.py
index dd981ffc..e6f26d2b 100644
--- a/vllm/lora/layers.py
+++ b/vllm/lora/layers.py
@@ -940,8 +940,8 @@ class LogitsProcessorWithLoRA(BaseLayerWithLoRA):
         return self.base_layer.soft_cap
 
     @property
-    def use_gather(self):
-        return self.base_layer.use_gather
+    def use_all_gather(self):
+        return self.base_layer.use_all_gather
 
     @property
     def org_vocab_size(self):
diff --git a/vllm/model_executor/layers/logits_processor.py b/vllm/model_executor/layers/logits_processor.py
index 2bc7e458..42decde1 100644
--- a/vllm/model_executor/layers/logits_processor.py
+++ b/vllm/model_executor/layers/logits_processor.py
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ import torch
 import torch.nn as nn
 
 import vllm.envs as envs
+from vllm.config import get_current_vllm_config
 from vllm.distributed import (tensor_model_parallel_all_gather,
                               tensor_model_parallel_gather)
 from vllm.model_executor.layers.vocab_parallel_embedding import (
@@ -44,8 +45,10 @@ class LogitsProcessor(nn.Module):
         self.soft_cap = soft_cap
         # Whether to use gather or all-gather to gather the logits.
 
-        self.use_gather = not current_platform.is_tpu(
-        ) and not envs.VLLM_USE_V1
+        parallel_config = get_current_vllm_config().parallel_config
+        self.use_all_gather = current_platform.is_tpu() \
+            or envs.VLLM_USE_V1 \
+            or parallel_config.distributed_executor_backend == "external_launcher" # noqa
 
     def forward(
         self,
@@ -88,16 +91,17 @@ class LogitsProcessor(nn.Module):
         logits = lm_head.linear_method.apply(lm_head,
                                              hidden_states,
                                              bias=embedding_bias)
-        if self.use_gather:
-            # None may be returned for rank > 0
-            logits = tensor_model_parallel_gather(logits)
-        else:
+
+        if self.use_all_gather:
             # Gather is not supported for some devices such as TPUs.
             # Use all-gather instead.
             # NOTE(woosuk): Here, the outputs of every device should not be None
             # because XLA requires strict SPMD among all devices. Every device
             # should execute the same operations after gathering the logits.
             logits = tensor_model_parallel_all_gather(logits)
+        else:
+            # None may be returned for rank > 0
+            logits = tensor_model_parallel_gather(logits)
         # Remove paddings in vocab (if any).
         if logits is not None:
             logits = logits[..., :self.org_vocab_size]
diff --git a/vllm/v1/executor/multiproc_executor.py b/vllm/v1/executor/multiproc_executor.py
index cee0fcc0..e111ac7e 100644
--- a/vllm/v1/executor/multiproc_executor.py
+++ b/vllm/v1/executor/multiproc_executor.py
@@ -246,7 +246,7 @@ class WorkerProc:
         ready_path: str,
     ):
         self.rank = rank
-        wrapper = WorkerWrapperBase(vllm_config=vllm_config, rank=rank)
+        wrapper = WorkerWrapperBase(vllm_config=vllm_config, rpc_rank=rank)
         # TODO: move `init_worker` to executor level as a collective rpc call
         all_kwargs: List[Dict] = [
             {} for _ in range(vllm_config.parallel_config.world_size)
diff --git a/vllm/worker/worker.py b/vllm/worker/worker.py
index a3e377ef..43eeb287 100644
--- a/vllm/worker/worker.py
+++ b/vllm/worker/worker.py
@@ -55,9 +55,6 @@ class Worker(LocalOrDistributedWorkerBase):
         self.rank = rank
         self.distributed_init_method = distributed_init_method
         self.is_driver_worker = is_driver_worker
-        if is_driver_worker:
-            assert rank % self.parallel_config.tensor_parallel_size == 0, \
-                   "Driver worker should be rank 0 of tensor parallel group."
         if self.model_config.trust_remote_code:
             # note: lazy import to avoid importing torch before initializing
             from vllm.utils import init_cached_hf_modules
diff --git a/vllm/worker/worker_base.py b/vllm/worker/worker_base.py
index 7c14b834..d464b614 100644
--- a/vllm/worker/worker_base.py
+++ b/vllm/worker/worker_base.py
@@ -461,7 +461,8 @@ class LocalOrDistributedWorkerBase(WorkerBase):
 
 class WorkerWrapperBase:
     """
-    The whole point of this class is to lazily initialize the worker.
+    This class represents one process in an executor/engine. It is responsible
+    for lazily initializing the worker and handling the worker's lifecycle.
     We first instantiate the WorkerWrapper, which remembers the worker module
     and class name. Then, when we call `update_environment_variables`, and the
     real initialization happens in `init_worker`.
@@ -470,9 +471,19 @@ class WorkerWrapperBase:
     def __init__(
         self,
         vllm_config: VllmConfig,
-        rank: int = 0,
+        rpc_rank: int = 0,
     ) -> None:
-        self.rank = rank
+        """
+        Initialize the worker wrapper with the given vllm_config and rpc_rank.
+        Note: rpc_rank is the rank of the worker in the executor. In most cases,
+        it is also the rank of the worker in the distributed group. However,
+        when multiple executors work together, they can be different.
+        e.g. in the case of SPMD-style offline inference with TP=2,
+        users can launch 2 engines/executors, each with only 1 worker.
+        All workers have rpc_rank=0, but they have different ranks in the TP
+        group.
+        """
+        self.rpc_rank = rpc_rank
         self.vllm_config = vllm_config
         self.worker: Optional[WorkerBase] = None
         if vllm_config.model_config is not None:
@@ -485,16 +496,16 @@ class WorkerWrapperBase:
 
     def adjust_rank(self, rank_mapping: Dict[int, int]) -> None:
         """
-        Adjust the rank based on the given mapping.
+        Adjust the rpc_rank based on the given mapping.
         It is only used during the initialization of the executor,
-        to adjust the rank of workers after we create all workers.
+        to adjust the rpc_rank of workers after we create all workers.
         """
-        if self.rank in rank_mapping:
-            self.rank = rank_mapping[self.rank]
+        if self.rpc_rank in rank_mapping:
+            self.rpc_rank = rank_mapping[self.rpc_rank]
 
     def update_environment_variables(self, envs_list: List[Dict[str,
                                                                 str]]) -> None:
-        envs = envs_list[self.rank]
+        envs = envs_list[self.rpc_rank]
         key = 'CUDA_VISIBLE_DEVICES'
         if key in envs and key in os.environ:
             # overwriting CUDA_VISIBLE_DEVICES is desired behavior
@@ -507,7 +518,7 @@ class WorkerWrapperBase:
         Here we inject some common logic before initializing the worker.
         Arguments are passed to the worker class constructor.
         """
-        kwargs = all_kwargs[self.rank]
+        kwargs = all_kwargs[self.rpc_rank]
         enable_trace_function_call_for_thread(self.vllm_config)
 
         # see https://github.com/NVIDIA/nccl/issues/1234