diff --git a/hw/i386/pc.c b/hw/i386/pc.c
index 7779c88a91..a527c0df0a 100644
--- a/hw/i386/pc.c
+++ b/hw/i386/pc.c
@@ -1245,7 +1245,9 @@ void pc_nic_init(PCMachineClass *pcmc, ISABus *isa_bus, PCIBus *pci_bus)
     }
 
     /* Anything remaining should be a PCI NIC */
-    pci_init_nic_devices(pci_bus, mc->default_nic);
+    if (pci_bus) {
+        pci_init_nic_devices(pci_bus, mc->default_nic);
+    }
 
     rom_reset_order_override();
 }