diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index b34985da2..245cf10a4 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -151,13 +151,13 @@ if(MLX_BUILD_CPU)
       GIT_REPOSITORY https://github.com/OpenMathLib/OpenBLAS.git
       GIT_TAG v0.3.28
       EXCLUDE_FROM_ALL)
-    set(NOFORTRAN ON)  # msvc has no fortran compiler
+    set(BUILD_STATIC_LIBS ON) # link statically
+    set(NOFORTRAN ON) # msvc has no fortran compiler
     FetchContent_MakeAvailable(openblas)
     target_link_libraries(mlx PRIVATE openblas)
     target_include_directories(
       mlx PRIVATE "${openblas_SOURCE_DIR}/lapack-netlib/LAPACKE/include"
-                  "${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/generated"
-                  "${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}")
+                  "${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/generated" "${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}")
   else()
     if(${CMAKE_HOST_APPLE})
       # The blas shipped in macOS SDK is not supported, search homebrew for