diff --git a/hw/arm/sbsa-ref.c b/hw/arm/sbsa-ref.c
index 0639f97dd5..b774d80291 100644
--- a/hw/arm/sbsa-ref.c
+++ b/hw/arm/sbsa-ref.c
@@ -910,6 +910,8 @@ static void sbsa_ref_class_init(ObjectClass *oc, void *data)
     mc->possible_cpu_arch_ids = sbsa_ref_possible_cpu_arch_ids;
     mc->cpu_index_to_instance_props = sbsa_ref_cpu_index_to_props;
     mc->get_default_cpu_node_id = sbsa_ref_get_default_cpu_node_id;
+    /* platform instead of architectural choice */
+    mc->cpu_cluster_has_numa_boundary = true;
 }
 
 static const TypeInfo sbsa_ref_info = {
diff --git a/hw/arm/virt.c b/hw/arm/virt.c
index 9b9f7d9c68..3937e30477 100644
--- a/hw/arm/virt.c
+++ b/hw/arm/virt.c
@@ -3033,6 +3033,8 @@ static void virt_machine_class_init(ObjectClass *oc, void *data)
     mc->smp_props.clusters_supported = true;
     mc->auto_enable_numa_with_memhp = true;
     mc->auto_enable_numa_with_memdev = true;
+    /* platform instead of architectural choice */
+    mc->cpu_cluster_has_numa_boundary = true;
     mc->default_ram_id = "mach-virt.ram";
     mc->default_nic = "virtio-net-pci";