diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index f7b6d94..fe64c96 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -58,7 +58,6 @@ if __name__ == "__main__":
         name="fairscale",
         description="FairScale: A PyTorch library for large-scale and high-performance training.",
         version=find_version("fairscale/version.py"),
-        setup_requires=["ninja"],  # ninja is required to build extensions
         install_requires=fetch_requirements(),
         include_package_data=True,
         packages=setuptools.find_packages(exclude=("tests", "tests.*")),