diff --git a/.github/workflows/build-linux-cross.yml b/.github/workflows/build-linux-cross.yml
index 36201281f00..c2c6ea12ae4 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/build-linux-cross.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/build-linux-cross.yml
@@ -291,6 +291,7 @@ jobs:
                          -DGGML_RVV=ON \
                          -DGGML_RV_ZFH=ON \
                          -DGGML_RV_ZICBOP=ON \
+                         -DGGML_RV_ZIHINTPAUSE=ON \
                          -DRISCV64_SPACEMIT_IME_SPEC=RISCV64_SPACEMIT_IME1 \
                          -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=${PWD}/cmake/riscv64-spacemit-linux-gnu-gcc.cmake
 
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index eac8d66cc24..7dd2bfd8a15 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -61,7 +61,7 @@ range of hardware - locally and in the cloud.
 - Plain C/C++ implementation without any dependencies
 - Apple silicon is a first-class citizen - optimized via ARM NEON, Accelerate and Metal frameworks
 - AVX, AVX2, AVX512 and AMX support for x86 architectures
-- RVV, ZVFH, ZFH and ZICBOP support for RISC-V architectures
+- RVV, ZVFH, ZFH, ZICBOP and ZIHINTPAUSE support for RISC-V architectures
 - 1.5-bit, 2-bit, 3-bit, 4-bit, 5-bit, 6-bit, and 8-bit integer quantization for faster inference and reduced memory use
 - Custom CUDA kernels for running LLMs on NVIDIA GPUs (support for AMD GPUs via HIP and Moore Threads GPUs via MUSA)
 - Vulkan and SYCL backend support
diff --git a/docs/build-riscv64-spacemit.md b/docs/build-riscv64-spacemit.md
index eaa65325465..79bd4de63af 100644
--- a/docs/build-riscv64-spacemit.md
+++ b/docs/build-riscv64-spacemit.md
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ cmake -B build \
     -DGGML_RVV=ON \
     -DGGML_RV_ZFH=ON \
     -DGGML_RV_ZICBOP=ON \
+    -DGGML_RV_ZIHINTPAUSE=ON \
     -DRISCV64_SPACEMIT_IME_SPEC=RISCV64_SPACEMIT_IME1 \
     -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=${PWD}/cmake/riscv64-spacemit-linux-gnu-gcc.cmake \
     -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=build/installed
diff --git a/ggml/CMakeLists.txt b/ggml/CMakeLists.txt
index 6b69ad82812..ab5b4760e20 100644
--- a/ggml/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/ggml/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -168,6 +168,7 @@ option(GGML_RVV              "ggml: enable rvv"              ON)
 option(GGML_RV_ZFH           "ggml: enable riscv zfh"        ON)
 option(GGML_RV_ZVFH          "ggml: enable riscv zvfh"       ON)
 option(GGML_RV_ZICBOP        "ggml: enable riscv zicbop"     ON)
+option(GGML_RV_ZIHINTPAUSE   "ggml: enable riscv zihintpause "  ON)
 option(GGML_XTHEADVECTOR     "ggml: enable xtheadvector"     OFF)
 option(GGML_VXE              "ggml: enable vxe"              ${GGML_NATIVE})
 
diff --git a/ggml/src/ggml-cpu/CMakeLists.txt b/ggml/src/ggml-cpu/CMakeLists.txt
index 7e53a57b7b0..fc31089f3e2 100644
--- a/ggml/src/ggml-cpu/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/ggml/src/ggml-cpu/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -469,6 +469,9 @@ function(ggml_add_cpu_backend_variant_impl tag_name)
             if (GGML_RV_ZICBOP)
                 string(APPEND MARCH_STR "_zicbop")
             endif()
+            if (GGML_RV_ZIHINTPAUSE)
+                string(APPEND MARCH_STR "_zihintpause")
+            endif()
             list(APPEND ARCH_FLAGS "-march=${MARCH_STR}" -mabi=lp64d)
         else()
             # Begin with the lowest baseline
diff --git a/ggml/src/ggml-cpu/ggml-cpu.c b/ggml/src/ggml-cpu/ggml-cpu.c
index 8507557267a..b468b115a18 100644
--- a/ggml/src/ggml-cpu/ggml-cpu.c
+++ b/ggml/src/ggml-cpu/ggml-cpu.c
@@ -490,6 +490,15 @@ static inline void ggml_thread_cpu_relax(void) {
 static inline void ggml_thread_cpu_relax(void) {
     _mm_pause();
 }
+#elif defined(__riscv)
+static inline void ggml_thread_cpu_relax(void) {
+    #ifdef __riscv_zihintpause
+        __asm__ __volatile__ ("pause");
+    #else
+        /* Encoding of the pause instruction */
+        __asm__ __volatile__ (".4byte 0x100000F");
+    #endif
+}
 #else
 static inline void ggml_thread_cpu_relax(void) {;}
 #endif