diff --git a/bitsandbytes/backends/cpu/ops.py b/bitsandbytes/backends/cpu/ops.py
index 44fb5dceb..87795f679 100755
--- a/bitsandbytes/backends/cpu/ops.py
+++ b/bitsandbytes/backends/cpu/ops.py
@@ -16,6 +16,24 @@
 
 _has_avx512 = torch.backends.cpu.get_cpu_capability() == "AVX512"
 
+
+def _load_gemm_4bit_forward_kernel():
+    try:
+        from kernels import get_kernel
+
+        return get_kernel(
+            "kernels-community/quantization-bitsandbytes",
+            version=1,
+            backend="cpu",
+        ).gemm_4bit_forward
+    except Exception as exc:  # pragma: no cover - best effort fallback
+        logger.warning(
+            "Failed to load CPU gemm_4bit_forward from kernels-community: %s. Please make sure you already `pip install kernels` and the kernels >= 0.11.1",
+            exc,
+        )
+        return None
+
+
 # torch._int_mm for s8@s8->s32 is supported on CPU from torch 2.4+.
 # However, we can overflow if we use this without AVX512_VNNI support.
 # This is fixed in torch 2.6+, so we set this as the minimum to be safe.
@@ -240,19 +258,7 @@ def _(
         return out
 
     if has_avx512bf16():
-        gemm_4bit_forward_kernel = None
-        try:
-            from kernels import get_kernel
-
-            gemm_4bit_forward_kernel = get_kernel(
-                "kernels-community/quantization-bitsandbytes", version=1
-            ).gemm_4bit_forward
-        except Exception as exc:  # pragma: no cover - best effort fallback
-            gemm_4bit_forward_kernel = None
-            logger.warning(
-                "Failed to load CPU gemm_4bit_forward from kernels-community: %s. Please make sure you already `pip install kernels` and the kernels >= 0.11.1",
-                exc,
-            )
+        gemm_4bit_forward_kernel = _load_gemm_4bit_forward_kernel()
 
         @register_kernel("bitsandbytes::gemv_4bit", "cpu")
         def _(
diff --git a/tests/test_cpu_ops.py b/tests/test_cpu_ops.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..8847b20d9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/test_cpu_ops.py
@@ -0,0 +1,44 @@
+import logging
+import sys
+from types import ModuleType, SimpleNamespace
+
+import bitsandbytes.backends.cpu.ops as cpu_ops
+
+
+def test_load_gemm_4bit_forward_kernel_requests_cpu_backend(monkeypatch):
+    kernels = ModuleType("kernels")
+    sentinel = object()
+    captured = {}
+
+    def fake_get_kernel(repo_id, **kwargs):
+        captured["repo_id"] = repo_id
+        captured["kwargs"] = kwargs
+        return SimpleNamespace(gemm_4bit_forward=sentinel)
+
+    kernels.get_kernel = fake_get_kernel
+    monkeypatch.setitem(sys.modules, "kernels", kernels)
+
+    kernel = cpu_ops._load_gemm_4bit_forward_kernel()
+
+    assert kernel is sentinel
+    assert captured == {
+        "repo_id": "kernels-community/quantization-bitsandbytes",
+        "kwargs": {"version": 1, "backend": "cpu"},
+    }
+
+
+def test_load_gemm_4bit_forward_kernel_logs_and_falls_back(monkeypatch, caplog):
+    kernels = ModuleType("kernels")
+
+    def fake_get_kernel(*args, **kwargs):
+        raise FileNotFoundError("missing cpu variant")
+
+    kernels.get_kernel = fake_get_kernel
+    monkeypatch.setitem(sys.modules, "kernels", kernels)
+
+    with caplog.at_level(logging.WARNING, logger=cpu_ops.__name__):
+        kernel = cpu_ops._load_gemm_4bit_forward_kernel()
+
+    assert kernel is None
+    assert "Failed to load CPU gemm_4bit_forward from kernels-community" in caplog.text
+    assert "missing cpu variant" in caplog.text