New Hybrid Fine-Tuning Paradigm for LLMs: Algorithm Design and Convergence Analysis Framework

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Hauptverfasser: Ma, Shaocong, Yu, Peiran, Huang, Heng
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2026
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author Ma, Shaocong
Yu, Peiran
Huang, Heng
author_facet Ma, Shaocong
Yu, Peiran
Huang, Heng
contents Fine-tuning Large Language Models (LLMs) typically involves either full fine-tuning, which updates all model parameters, or Parameter-Efficient Fine-Tuning (PEFT), which adjusts a small subset of parameters. However, both approaches have inherent limitations: full fine-tuning is computationally expensive, while PEFT often struggles to learn new knowledge and exhibits suboptimal performance. To overcome these issues, we propose a novel hybrid fine-tuning approach that jointly updates both LLMs and PEFT modules using a combination of zeroth-order and first-order optimization methods. To analyze our new algorithm, we develop a theoretical framework centered on the concept of hybrid smoothness condition, which accounts for the heterogeneous nature of the optimization landscape in joint LLM and PEFT training. We derive a rigorous convergence analysis for the convergence of reshuffling-type SGD algorithm under multiple learning rates and demonstrate its effectiveness through extensive empirical studies across various downstream tasks and model architectures. On the practical side, our results demonstrate consistent performance improvement, making the approach a viable solution for large-scale language model fine-tuning.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_09940
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle New Hybrid Fine-Tuning Paradigm for LLMs: Algorithm Design and Convergence Analysis Framework
Ma, Shaocong
Yu, Peiran
Huang, Heng
Artificial Intelligence
Machine Learning
Optimization and Control
Fine-tuning Large Language Models (LLMs) typically involves either full fine-tuning, which updates all model parameters, or Parameter-Efficient Fine-Tuning (PEFT), which adjusts a small subset of parameters. However, both approaches have inherent limitations: full fine-tuning is computationally expensive, while PEFT often struggles to learn new knowledge and exhibits suboptimal performance. To overcome these issues, we propose a novel hybrid fine-tuning approach that jointly updates both LLMs and PEFT modules using a combination of zeroth-order and first-order optimization methods. To analyze our new algorithm, we develop a theoretical framework centered on the concept of hybrid smoothness condition, which accounts for the heterogeneous nature of the optimization landscape in joint LLM and PEFT training. We derive a rigorous convergence analysis for the convergence of reshuffling-type SGD algorithm under multiple learning rates and demonstrate its effectiveness through extensive empirical studies across various downstream tasks and model architectures. On the practical side, our results demonstrate consistent performance improvement, making the approach a viable solution for large-scale language model fine-tuning.
title New Hybrid Fine-Tuning Paradigm for LLMs: Algorithm Design and Convergence Analysis Framework
topic Artificial Intelligence
Machine Learning
Optimization and Control
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.09940