diff --git a/ggml/CMakeLists.txt b/ggml/CMakeLists.txt
index b0b8e57898..06b4d54a4e 100644
--- a/ggml/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/ggml/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -241,6 +241,7 @@ option(GGML_OPENMP                          "ggml: use OpenMP"
 option(GGML_RPC                             "ggml: use RPC"                                   OFF)
 option(GGML_SYCL                            "ggml: use SYCL"                                  OFF)
 option(GGML_SYCL_F16                        "ggml: use 16 bit floats for sycl calculations"   OFF)
+option(GGML_SYCL_HAS_BF16                   "ggml: enable support for bfloat16 type"          OFF)
 option(GGML_SYCL_GRAPH                      "ggml: enable graphs in the SYCL backend"         ON)
 option(GGML_SYCL_DNN                        "ggml: enable oneDNN in the SYCL backend"         ON)
 set   (GGML_SYCL_TARGET "INTEL" CACHE STRING
diff --git a/ggml/src/ggml-sycl/CMakeLists.txt b/ggml/src/ggml-sycl/CMakeLists.txt
index 5a89d8dd68..b8a43ecce6 100644
--- a/ggml/src/ggml-sycl/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/ggml/src/ggml-sycl/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -131,6 +131,10 @@ if (GGML_SYCL_F16)
     add_compile_definitions(GGML_SYCL_F16)
 endif()
 
+if (GGML_SYCL_HAS_BF16)
+    add_compile_definitions(GGML_SYCL_HAS_BF16)
+endif()
+
 if (GGML_SYCL_TARGET STREQUAL "INTEL")
     add_compile_definitions(GGML_SYCL_WARP_SIZE=16)
     target_link_options(ggml-sycl PRIVATE  -Xs   -ze-intel-greater-than-4GB-buffer-required)
diff --git a/ggml/src/ggml-sycl/convert.cpp b/ggml/src/ggml-sycl/convert.cpp
index 8bdae36458..fab0f7fd73 100644
--- a/ggml/src/ggml-sycl/convert.cpp
+++ b/ggml/src/ggml-sycl/convert.cpp
@@ -5,7 +5,6 @@
 #if defined(__INTEL_LLVM_COMPILER)
     #if __has_include(<sycl/ext/oneapi/bfloat16.hpp>)
         #include <sycl/ext/oneapi/bfloat16.hpp>
-        #define GGML_SYCL_HAS_BF16
     #endif
 #endif