diff --git a/examples/language/opt/run_gemini.sh b/examples/language/opt/run_gemini.sh
index 92fd481c5..73f231292 100644
--- a/examples/language/opt/run_gemini.sh
+++ b/examples/language/opt/run_gemini.sh
@@ -4,10 +4,17 @@ export MEMCAP=${MEMCAP:-0}
 # Acceptable values include `125m`, `350m`, `1.3b`, `2.7b`, `6.7b`, `13b`, `30b`, `66b`. For `175b`
 export MODEL=${MODEL:-"125m"}
 export GPUNUM=${GPUNUM:-1}
+export USE_SHARD_INIT=${USE_SHARD_INIT:-"false"}
 
 # make directory for logs
 mkdir -p ./logs
 
+if [ ${USE_SHARD_INIT} = "true" ]; then
+  USE_SHARD_INIT="--shardinit"
+else
+  USE_SHARD_INIT=""
+fi
+
 export MODLE_PATH="facebook/opt-${MODEL}"
 
 # HF_DATASETS_OFFLINE=1 TRANSFORMERS_OFFLINE=1
@@ -17,4 +24,5 @@ torchrun \
   train_gemini_opt.py \
   --mem_cap ${MEMCAP} \
   --model_name_or_path ${MODLE_PATH} \
+  ${USE_SHARD_INIT} \
   --batch_size ${BS} 2>&1 | tee ./logs/colo_${MODEL}_bs_${BS}_cap_${MEMCAP}_gpu_${GPUNUM}.log
diff --git a/examples/language/opt/train_gemini_opt.py b/examples/language/opt/train_gemini_opt.py
index 64426ba42..1546b31ba 100755
--- a/examples/language/opt/train_gemini_opt.py
+++ b/examples/language/opt/train_gemini_opt.py
@@ -39,6 +39,8 @@ from colossalai.nn.parallel import GeminiDDP
 from colossalai.utils import get_current_device
 from colossalai.utils.model.colo_init_context import ColoInitContext
 
+from colossalai.tensor import ProcessGroup, ShardSpec
+
 
 def get_data(batch_size, seq_len, vocab_size):
     input_ids = torch.randint(0, vocab_size, (batch_size, seq_len), device=torch.cuda.current_device())
@@ -102,6 +104,11 @@ def parse_args():
         help="Model type to use if training from scratch.",
         choices=MODEL_TYPES,
     )
+    parser.add_argument(
+        "--shardinit",
+        action="store_true",
+        help="Initialize the model with tensor parallel",
+    )
     parser.add_argument("--mem_cap", type=int, default=0, help="use mem cap")
     parser.add_argument("--init_in_cpu", action='store_true', default=False, help="init training model in cpu")
     args = parser.parse_args()
@@ -159,16 +166,30 @@ def main():
     else:
         init_dev = get_current_device()
 
+    # shard init prameters
+    if args.shardinit:
+        logger.info("Sharding initialization !", ranks=[0])
+    else:
+        logger.info("Skipping sharding initialization", ranks=[0])
+
+    world_size = torch.distributed.get_world_size()
+    shard_pg = ProcessGroup(tp_degree=world_size) if args.shardinit else None
+    default_dist_spec = ShardSpec([-1], [world_size]) if args.shardinit else None
+
     # build model
     if args.model_name_or_path is None or args.model_name_or_path == 'facebook/opt-13b':
         # currently, there has a bug in pretrained opt-13b
         # we can not import it until huggingface fix it
         logger.info("Train a new model from scratch", ranks=[0])
-        with ColoInitContext(device=init_dev, dtype=torch.half):
+        with ColoInitContext(device=init_dev, dtype=torch.half,
+                             default_dist_spec=default_dist_spec,
+                             default_pg=shard_pg):
             model = OPTForCausalLM(config)
     else:
         logger.info("Finetune a pre-trained model", ranks=[0])
-        with ColoInitContext(device=init_dev, dtype=torch.half):
+        with ColoInitContext(device=init_dev, dtype=torch.half,
+                             default_dist_spec=default_dist_spec,
+                             default_pg=shard_pg):
             model = OPTForCausalLM.from_pretrained(args.model_name_or_path,
                                                    from_tf=bool(".ckpt" in args.model_name_or_path),
                                                    config=config,
@@ -179,7 +200,8 @@ def main():
 
     numel = sum([p.numel() for p in model.parameters()])
     PLACEMENT_POLICY = 'cpu'
-    model = GeminiDDP(model, device=get_current_device(), placement_policy=PLACEMENT_POLICY, pin_memory=True)
+    model = GeminiDDP(model, device=get_current_device(), placement_policy=PLACEMENT_POLICY,
+                      pin_memory=True, strict_ddp_mode=args.shardinit)
     optimizer = GeminiAdamOptimizer(model, lr=args.learning_rate, initial_scale=2**14, gpu_margin_mem_ratio=0.0)
 
     SEQ_LEN = 1024