diff --git a/ggml/src/ggml-cpu/CMakeLists.txt b/ggml/src/ggml-cpu/CMakeLists.txt
index 7622d0bf49..6aea7f7bfb 100644
--- a/ggml/src/ggml-cpu/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/ggml/src/ggml-cpu/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -569,12 +569,14 @@ function(ggml_add_cpu_backend_variant_impl tag_name)
             cmake_policy(SET CMP0135 NEW)
         endif()
 
+        # TODO: Use FetchContent_MakeAvailable with EXCLUDE_FROM_ALL after bumping minimum CMake version to 3.28+
+        # Using FetchContent_Populate instead to avoid EXCLUDE_FROM_ALL which requires CMake 3.28
         FetchContent_Declare(KleidiAI_Download
             URL ${KLEIDIAI_DOWNLOAD_URL}
             DOWNLOAD_EXTRACT_TIMESTAMP NEW
             URL_HASH MD5=${KLEIDIAI_ARCHIVE_MD5})
 
-        FetchContent_MakeAvailable(KleidiAI_Download)
+        FetchContent_Populate(KleidiAI_Download)
         FetchContent_GetProperties(KleidiAI_Download
             SOURCE_DIR  KLEIDIAI_SRC
             POPULATED   KLEIDIAI_POPULATED)
@@ -585,11 +587,6 @@ function(ggml_add_cpu_backend_variant_impl tag_name)
 
         add_compile_definitions(GGML_USE_CPU_KLEIDIAI)
 
-        # Remove kleidiai target after fetching it
-        if (TARGET kleidiai)
-            set_target_properties(kleidiai PROPERTIES EXCLUDE_FROM_ALL TRUE)
-        endif()
-
         list(APPEND GGML_CPU_SOURCES
             ggml-cpu/kleidiai/kleidiai.cpp
             ggml-cpu/kleidiai/kernels.cpp