diff --git a/qom/cpu.c b/qom/cpu.c
index 2553247907..f783b5a6bd 100644
--- a/qom/cpu.c
+++ b/qom/cpu.c
@@ -342,6 +342,11 @@ static void cpu_common_initfn(Object *obj)
 
     cpu->cpu_index = UNASSIGNED_CPU_INDEX;
     cpu->gdb_num_regs = cpu->gdb_num_g_regs = cc->gdb_num_core_regs;
+    /* *-user doesn't have configurable SMP topology */
+    /* the default value is changed by qemu_init_vcpu() for softmmu */
+    cpu->nr_cores = 1;
+    cpu->nr_threads = 1;
+
     qemu_mutex_init(&cpu->work_mutex);
     QTAILQ_INIT(&cpu->breakpoints);
     QTAILQ_INIT(&cpu->watchpoints);