diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 88888ad0..e47bd598 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -45,7 +45,7 @@ Some more useful examples are listed below.
 
 ### Hugging Face
 
-Note: You can now directly download a few converted checkpoints from the [MLX
+You can directly use or download converted checkpoints from the [MLX
 Community](https://huggingface.co/mlx-community) organization on Hugging Face.
 We encourage you to join the community and [contribute new
 models](https://github.com/ml-explore/mlx-examples/issues/155).
diff --git a/llms/README.md b/llms/README.md
index e943ed69..4f7451c1 100644
--- a/llms/README.md
+++ b/llms/README.md
@@ -164,7 +164,7 @@ mlx_lm.convert \
 ```
 
 Models can also be converted and quantized directly in the
-[mlx-my-repo]https://huggingface.co/spaces/mlx-community/mlx-my-repo) Hugging
+[mlx-my-repo](https://huggingface.co/spaces/mlx-community/mlx-my-repo) Hugging
 Face Space.
 
 ### Long Prompts and Generations 
diff --git a/llms/mlx_lm/examples/pipeline_generate.py b/llms/mlx_lm/examples/pipeline_generate.py
index d170405a..1e4fb445 100644
--- a/llms/mlx_lm/examples/pipeline_generate.py
+++ b/llms/mlx_lm/examples/pipeline_generate.py
@@ -44,7 +44,8 @@ def shard_and_load(repo):
         allow_patterns=["*.json", "*.py", "tokenizer.model", "*.tiktoken", "*.txt"],
     )
 
-    # Lazy load and shard model
+    # Lazy load and shard model to figure out
+    # which weights we need
     model, _ = load_model(model_path, lazy=True, strict=False)
 
     group = mx.distributed.init(backend="mpi")
@@ -62,8 +63,11 @@ def shard_and_load(repo):
     # Download weights for local shard
     download(args.model, allow_patterns=local_files)
 
+    # Load and shard the model, and load the weights
     tokenizer = load_tokenizer(model_path)
-    model, _ = load_model(model_path)
+    model, _ = load_model(model_path, lazy=True, strict=False)
+    model.model.pipeline(group)
+    mx.eval(model.parameters())
 
     # Synchronize processes before generation to avoid timeout if downloading
     # model for the first time.
diff --git a/llms/mlx_lm/models/deepseek_v2.py b/llms/mlx_lm/models/deepseek_v2.py
index 3136ca7b..3581fcbe 100644
--- a/llms/mlx_lm/models/deepseek_v2.py
+++ b/llms/mlx_lm/models/deepseek_v2.py
@@ -386,6 +386,7 @@ class DeepseekV2Model(nn.Module):
         self.num_layers = layers_per_rank
         self.layers = self.layers[: self.end_idx]
         self.layers[: self.start_idx] = [None] * self.start_idx
+        self.num_layers = len(self.layers) - self.start_idx
 
     def __call__(
         self,
diff --git a/llms/mlx_lm/models/deepseek_v3.py b/llms/mlx_lm/models/deepseek_v3.py
index e6a0dd1e..69ee1be0 100644
--- a/llms/mlx_lm/models/deepseek_v3.py
+++ b/llms/mlx_lm/models/deepseek_v3.py
@@ -397,12 +397,11 @@ class DeepseekV3Model(nn.Module):
         layers_per_rank = (
             len(self.layers) + self.pipeline_size - 1
         ) // self.pipeline_size
-        start = (self.pipeline_size - self.pipeline_rank - 1) * layers_per_rank
         self.start_idx = (self.pipeline_size - self.pipeline_rank - 1) * layers_per_rank
         self.end_idx = self.start_idx + layers_per_rank
-        self.num_layers = layers_per_rank
         self.layers = self.layers[: self.end_idx]
         self.layers[: self.start_idx] = [None] * self.start_idx
+        self.num_layers = len(self.layers) - self.start_idx
 
     def __call__(
         self,
diff --git a/llms/mlx_lm/models/helium.py b/llms/mlx_lm/models/helium.py
index 6ca46a72..ff551bca 100644
--- a/llms/mlx_lm/models/helium.py
+++ b/llms/mlx_lm/models/helium.py
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+# Copyright © 2025 Apple Inc.
+
 from dataclasses import dataclass
 from typing import Any, Optional, Tuple
 
diff --git a/llms/mlx_lm/models/mamba.py b/llms/mlx_lm/models/mamba.py
index f2414660..93cc616e 100644
--- a/llms/mlx_lm/models/mamba.py
+++ b/llms/mlx_lm/models/mamba.py
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-# Copyright © 2024 Apple Inc.
+# Copyright © 2024-2025 Apple Inc.
 
 import math
 from dataclasses import dataclass
@@ -123,17 +123,16 @@ class MambaBlock(nn.Module):
             self.intermediate_size, self.hidden_size, bias=args.use_bias
         )
 
-    def ssm_step(self, x, state=None):
-        A = -mx.exp(self.A_log)
+    def ssm_step(self, x, A, state=None):
         D = self.D
         deltaBC = self.x_proj(x)
-        delta, B, C = mx.split(
-            deltaBC,
-            indices_or_sections=[
-                self.time_step_rank,
-                self.time_step_rank + self.ssm_state_size,
-            ],
-            axis=-1,
+        delta, B, C = map(
+            self.mixer_norm if self.use_bcdt_rms else lambda x: x,
+            mx.split(
+                deltaBC,
+                [self.time_step_rank, self.time_step_rank + self.ssm_state_size],
+                axis=-1,
+            ),
         )
         if self.use_bcdt_rms:
             delta, B, C = map(self.mixer_norm, (delta, B, C))
@@ -145,25 +144,40 @@ class MambaBlock(nn.Module):
         y = y + D * x
         return y, new_state
 
-    def __call__(self, x, cache):
+    def _process_sequence(self, x, conv_cache, state_cache):
         B, T, D = x.shape
-        if cache is None:
-            cache = [None, None]
+        xz = self.in_proj(x)
+        x, z = xz.split(indices_or_sections=2, axis=-1)
+
+        conv_out, new_conv_cache = self.conv1d(x, conv_cache)
+        x = nn.silu(conv_out)
+
+        A = -mx.exp(self.A_log)
 
         outputs = []
+        current_state = state_cache
+        y = []
         for t in range(T):
-            xt = x[:, t, :]
-            xz = self.in_proj(xt)
-            x_t, z_t = xz.split(indices_or_sections=2, axis=1)
-            conv_out, cache[0] = self.conv1d(mx.expand_dims(x_t, 1), cache[0])
-            x_t = conv_out.squeeze(1)
-            x_t = nn.silu(x_t)
-            y_t, cache[1] = self.ssm_step(x_t, cache[1])
-            z_t = nn.silu(z_t)
-            output_t = y_t * z_t
-            output_t = self.out_proj(output_t)
-            outputs.append(output_t)
-        output = mx.stack(outputs, axis=1)
+            y_t, current_state = self.ssm_step(x[:, t], A, current_state)
+            y.append(y_t)
+        y = mx.stack(y, axis=1)
+        z = self.out_proj(nn.silu(z) * y)
+        return z, (new_conv_cache, current_state)
+
+    def __call__(self, x, cache):
+        if cache is None:
+            conv_cache, state_cache = None, None
+        else:
+            conv_cache, state_cache = cache[0], cache[1]
+
+        output, (new_conv_cache, new_state_cache) = self._process_sequence(
+            x, conv_cache, state_cache
+        )
+
+        if isinstance(cache, MambaCache):
+            cache[0] = new_conv_cache
+            cache[1] = new_state_cache
+
         return output
 
 
diff --git a/llms/mlx_lm/models/minicpm.py b/llms/mlx_lm/models/minicpm.py
index edddd583..7140c577 100644
--- a/llms/mlx_lm/models/minicpm.py
+++ b/llms/mlx_lm/models/minicpm.py
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-# Copyright © 2023-2024 Apple Inc.
+# Copyright © 2023-2025 Apple Inc.
 
 from dataclasses import dataclass
 from typing import Any, Dict, Optional, Tuple, Union
diff --git a/llms/mlx_lm/tuner/trainer.py b/llms/mlx_lm/tuner/trainer.py
index 63ca58bb..bf84d066 100644
--- a/llms/mlx_lm/tuner/trainer.py
+++ b/llms/mlx_lm/tuner/trainer.py
@@ -140,8 +140,8 @@ def evaluate(
     loss: callable = default_loss,
     iterate_batches: callable = iterate_batches,
 ):
-    all_losses = 0
-    ntokens = 0
+    all_losses = mx.array(0.0)
+    ntokens = mx.array(0)
 
     index_iterator = iter(range(num_batches)) if num_batches != -1 else iter(int, 1)