diff --git a/tools/testing/selftests/kvm/kvm_create_max_vcpus.c b/tools/testing/selftests/kvm/kvm_create_max_vcpus.c
index c5310736ed06..1b95027d41ba 100644
--- a/tools/testing/selftests/kvm/kvm_create_max_vcpus.c
+++ b/tools/testing/selftests/kvm/kvm_create_max_vcpus.c
@@ -58,7 +58,13 @@ int main(int argc, char *argv[])
 
 	test_vcpu_creation(0, kvm_max_vcpus);
 
-	if (kvm_max_vcpu_id > kvm_max_vcpus)
+	/*
+	 * Skip the vCPU ID test when running on PowerPC with SMT support, in
+	 * which case system topology is encoded into the vCPU ID and so a VM
+	 * can't use the full advertised vCPU ID range without crafting a valid
+	 * platform specific topology.
+	 */
+	if (kvm_max_vcpu_id > kvm_max_vcpus && !kvm_check_cap(KVM_CAP_PPC_SMT))
 		test_vcpu_creation(
 			kvm_max_vcpu_id - kvm_max_vcpus, kvm_max_vcpus);