diff --git a/backends/cuda/runtime/shims/memory.cpp b/backends/cuda/runtime/shims/memory.cpp
index b8e3dc8e21b..6fe315ba8ee 100644
--- a/backends/cuda/runtime/shims/memory.cpp
+++ b/backends/cuda/runtime/shims/memory.cpp
@@ -225,7 +225,7 @@ AOTITorchError aoti_torch_empty_strided(
 
   if (device_type == static_cast<int32_t>(SupportedDevices::CUDA)) {
     ET_CUDA_CHECK_OR_RETURN_ERROR(
-        cudaMallocManaged(&ptr, static_cast<size_t>(nbytes)));
+        cudaMallocAsync(&ptr, static_cast<size_t>(nbytes), cudaStreamDefault));
   } else if (device_type == static_cast<int32_t>(SupportedDevices::CPU)) {
     // Ensure 16-byte alignment for CPU memory to match CUDA requirements
     int result = posix_memalign(&ptr, 16, nbytes);
@@ -328,11 +328,14 @@ AOTITorchError aoti_torch_delete_tensor_object(Tensor* tensor) {
           ET_CUDA_CHECK_OR_RETURN_ERROR(
               cudaPointerGetAttributes(&attributes, data_ptr));
 
-          if (attributes.type == cudaMemoryTypeManaged) {
-            // This is CUDA managed memory - free with proper synchronization
-            ET_CUDA_CHECK_OR_RETURN_ERROR(cudaDeviceSynchronize());
-            ET_CUDA_CHECK_OR_RETURN_ERROR(cudaFree(data_ptr));
+          if (attributes.type == cudaMemoryTypeDevice) {
+            ET_CUDA_CHECK_OR_RETURN_ERROR(
+                cudaFreeAsync(data_ptr, cudaStreamDefault));
           } else {
+            ET_CHECK_OR_RETURN_ERROR(
+                attributes.type != cudaMemoryTypeManaged,
+                Internal,
+                "Expected host memory but got managed!")
             // This is CPU memory - free immediately
             free(data_ptr);
             data_ptr = nullptr;