diff --git a/hw/ppc/spapr.c b/hw/ppc/spapr.c
index 08a2a5a770..f976d76eca 100644
--- a/hw/ppc/spapr.c
+++ b/hw/ppc/spapr.c
@@ -2854,6 +2854,39 @@ static void spapr_machine_init(MachineState *machine)
     /* init CPUs */
     spapr_init_cpus(spapr);
 
+    /*
+     * check we don't have a memory-less/cpu-less NUMA node
+     * Firmware relies on the existing memory/cpu topology to provide the
+     * NUMA topology to the kernel.
+     * And the linux kernel needs to know the NUMA topology at start
+     * to be able to hotplug CPUs later.
+     */
+    if (machine->numa_state->num_nodes) {
+        for (i = 0; i < machine->numa_state->num_nodes; ++i) {
+            /* check for memory-less node */
+            if (machine->numa_state->nodes[i].node_mem == 0) {
+                CPUState *cs;
+                int found = 0;
+                /* check for cpu-less node */
+                CPU_FOREACH(cs) {
+                    PowerPCCPU *cpu = POWERPC_CPU(cs);
+                    if (cpu->node_id == i) {
+                        found = 1;
+                        break;
+                    }
+                }
+                /* memory-less and cpu-less node */
+                if (!found) {
+                    error_report(
+                       "Memory-less/cpu-less nodes are not supported (node %d)",
+                                 i);
+                    exit(1);
+                }
+            }
+        }
+
+    }
+
     if ((!kvm_enabled() || kvmppc_has_cap_mmu_radix()) &&
         ppc_type_check_compat(machine->cpu_type, CPU_POWERPC_LOGICAL_3_00, 0,
                               spapr->max_compat_pvr)) {