diff --git a/hw/riscv/numa.c b/hw/riscv/numa.c
index 472010256183..e0414d5b1b73 100644
--- a/hw/riscv/numa.c
+++ b/hw/riscv/numa.c
@@ -207,6 +207,12 @@ int64_t riscv_numa_get_default_cpu_node_id(const MachineState *ms, int idx)
 {
     int64_t nidx = 0;
 
+    if (ms->numa_state->num_nodes > ms->smp.cpus) {
+        error_report("Number of NUMA nodes (%d)"
+                     " cannot exceed the number of available CPUs (%d).",
+                     ms->numa_state->num_nodes, ms->smp.max_cpus);
+        exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
+    }
     if (ms->numa_state->num_nodes) {
         nidx = idx / (ms->smp.cpus / ms->numa_state->num_nodes);
         if (ms->numa_state->num_nodes <= nidx) {