diff --git a/target/i386/kvm.c b/target/i386/kvm.c
index b2401d13ea..739cf8c8ea 100644
--- a/target/i386/kvm.c
+++ b/target/i386/kvm.c
@@ -864,7 +864,15 @@ int kvm_arch_init_vcpu(CPUState *cs)
     struct {
         struct kvm_cpuid2 cpuid;
         struct kvm_cpuid_entry2 entries[KVM_MAX_CPUID_ENTRIES];
-    } QEMU_PACKED cpuid_data;
+    } cpuid_data;
+    /*
+     * The kernel defines these structs with padding fields so there
+     * should be no extra padding in our cpuid_data struct.
+     */
+    QEMU_BUILD_BUG_ON(sizeof(cpuid_data) !=
+                      sizeof(struct kvm_cpuid2) +
+                      sizeof(struct kvm_cpuid_entry2) * KVM_MAX_CPUID_ENTRIES);
+
     X86CPU *cpu = X86_CPU(cs);
     CPUX86State *env = &cpu->env;
     uint32_t limit, i, j, cpuid_i;