diff --git a/src/mainboard/emulation/qemu-riscv/romstage.c b/src/mainboard/emulation/qemu-riscv/romstage.c
index 684b2490a0..52c69f93d6 100644
--- a/src/mainboard/emulation/qemu-riscv/romstage.c
+++ b/src/mainboard/emulation/qemu-riscv/romstage.c
@@ -13,11 +13,13 @@
  * GNU General Public License for more details.
  */
 
+#include <cbmem.h>
 #include <console/console.h>
 #include <program_loading.h>
 
 void main(void)
 {
 	console_init();
+	cbmem_initialize_empty();
 	run_ramstage();
 }
diff --git a/src/mainboard/emulation/spike-riscv/romstage.c b/src/mainboard/emulation/spike-riscv/romstage.c
index 205c89e155..b3d1b4d559 100644
--- a/src/mainboard/emulation/spike-riscv/romstage.c
+++ b/src/mainboard/emulation/spike-riscv/romstage.c
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@
  * GNU General Public License for more details.
  */
 
+#include <cbmem.h>
 #include <console/console.h>
 #include <program_loading.h>
 
@@ -20,6 +21,8 @@ void main(void)
 {
 	console_init();
 
+	cbmem_initialize_empty();
+
 	//query_mem(configstring(), &base, &size);
 	//printk(BIOS_SPEW, "0x%zx bytes of memory at 0x%llx\n", size, base);