Kernel 5.16 has – finally – been released, after deliberate delay (with an -rc8) due to the ‘holiday season’..    Details are here:   http://lkml.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/2201.1/00613.html

As expected, the latest version of NVIDIA (495.46) and the latest patched VMware 16.2.1 all compile and load/run OK..

NVIDIA:
ld -r -o /home/rgadsdon/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-495.46/kernel/nvidia-modeset/nv-modeset-interface.o /home/rgadsdon/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-495.46/kernel/nvidia-modeset/nvidia-modeset-linux.o /home/rgadsdon/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-495.46/kernel/nvidia-modeset/nv-kthread-q.o
 MODPOST /home/rgadsdon/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-495.46/kernel/Module.symvers
 CC [M]  /home/rgadsdon/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-495.46/kernel/nvidia-drm.mod.o
 LD [M]  /home/rgadsdon/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-495.46/kernel/nvidia-drm.ko
 CC [M]  /home/rgadsdon/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-495.46/kernel/nvidia-modeset.mod.o
 LD [M]  /home/rgadsdon/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-495.46/kernel/nvidia-modeset.ko
 CC [M]  /home/rgadsdon/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-495.46/kernel/nvidia-peermem.mod.o
 LD [M]  /home/rgadsdon/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-495.46/kernel/nvidia-peermem.ko
 CC [M]  /home/rgadsdon/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-495.46/kernel/nvidia-uvm.mod.o
 LD [M]  /home/rgadsdon/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-495.46/kernel/nvidia-uvm.ko
 CC [M]  /home/rgadsdon/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-495.46/kernel/nvidia.mod.o
 LD [M]  /home/rgadsdon/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-495.46/kernel/nvidia.ko
make[1]: Leaving directory ‘/usr/src/linux-5.16’

Robert Gadsdon.   January 9th 2022.