diff --git a/src/mainboard/emulation/qemu-armv7/romstage.c b/src/mainboard/emulation/qemu-armv7/romstage.c
index c412315255..8dbe1a59de 100644
--- a/src/mainboard/emulation/qemu-armv7/romstage.c
+++ b/src/mainboard/emulation/qemu-armv7/romstage.c
@@ -1,10 +1,14 @@
 /* SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0-only */
 
+#include <cbmem.h>
 #include <console/console.h>
 #include <program_loading.h>
 
 void main(void)
 {
 	console_init();
+
+	cbmem_initialize_empty();
+
 	run_ramstage();
 }