diff --git a/torch_xla/__init__.py b/torch_xla/__init__.py
index cfde8456617..eeaa2aaba0c 100644
--- a/torch_xla/__init__.py
+++ b/torch_xla/__init__.py
@@ -3,6 +3,8 @@
 import re
 import tempfile
 
+from ._internal import tpu
+
 logging.basicConfig()
 logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
@@ -30,17 +32,16 @@ def _setup_xla_flags():
   os.environ['XLA_FLAGS'] = ' '.join(flags)
 
 
-def _set_missing_env(name, value):
-  if name not in os.environ:
-    os.environ[name] = value
+def _setup_default_env():
+  os.environ.setdefault('TF_CPP_MIN_LOG_LEVEL', '1')
+  os.environ.setdefault('GRPC_VERBOSITY', 'ERROR')
 
+  if tpu.num_available_chips() > 0:
+    os.environ.setdefault('ALLOW_MULTIPLE_LIBTPU_LOAD', '1')
+    os.environ.setdefault('TPU_ML_PLATFORM', 'PyTorch/XLA')
 
-def _setup_default_env():
-  _set_missing_env('TF_CPP_MIN_LOG_LEVEL', '1')
-  _set_missing_env('GRPC_VERBOSITY', 'ERROR')
-  _set_missing_env('ALLOW_MULTIPLE_LIBTPU_LOAD', '1')
-  _set_missing_env('TPU_ML_PLATFORM', 'PyTorch/XLA')
-  _set_missing_env('TPU_MEGACORE', 'megacore_dense')
+    if tpu.version() == 4:
+      os.environ.setdefault('TPU_MEGACORE', 'megacore_dense')
 
 
 _fd, _tmp_fname = -1, ''
@@ -48,7 +49,7 @@ def _setup_default_env():
 
 def _setup_debug_env():
   fd, tmp_fname = tempfile.mkstemp('.ptxla', text=True)
-  _set_missing_env('XLA_FNTRACKER_FILE', tmp_fname)
+  os.environ.setdefault('XLA_FNTRACKER_FILE', tmp_fname)
   return fd, tmp_fname