diff --git a/src/axolotl/utils/config.py b/src/axolotl/utils/config.py
index 1c0487ff8e..cb18380cb7 100644
--- a/src/axolotl/utils/config.py
+++ b/src/axolotl/utils/config.py
@@ -94,7 +94,7 @@ def validate_config(cfg):
         if not cfg.bf16 and not cfg.bfloat16:
             LOG.info("bf16 support detected, but not enabled for this configuration.")
     else:
-        if cfg.bf16 or cfg.bfloat16:
+        if not cfg.merge_lora and (cfg.bf16 or cfg.bfloat16):
             raise ValueError(
                 "bf16 requested, but AMP is not supported on this GPU. Requires Ampere series or above."
             )
diff --git a/tests/test_validation.py b/tests/test_validation.py
index f250e5cb47..d7935c1a54 100644
--- a/tests/test_validation.py
+++ b/tests/test_validation.py
@@ -351,3 +351,26 @@ def test_packing(self):
         regex_exp = r".*set only one of max_packed_sequence_len \(deprecated soon\) or sample_packing.*"
         with pytest.raises(ValueError, match=regex_exp):
             validate_config(cfg)
+
+    def test_merge_lora_no_bf16_fail(self):
+        """
+        This is assumed to be run on a CPU machine, so bf16 is not supported.
+        """
+
+        cfg = DictDefault(
+            {
+                "bf16": True,
+            }
+        )
+
+        with pytest.raises(ValueError, match=r".*AMP is not supported on this GPU*"):
+            validate_config(cfg)
+
+        cfg = DictDefault(
+            {
+                "bf16": True,
+                "merge_lora": True,
+            }
+        )
+
+        validate_config(cfg)