diff --git a/.github/workflows/release.yml b/.github/workflows/release.yml
index c3f3d1d..d54da4c 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/release.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/release.yml
@@ -51,6 +51,8 @@ jobs:
         with:
           github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
           changelog: false
+        env:
+          CUDA_HOME: "/usr" # nvcc is not required, but CUDAExtension needs that env
 
       - name: Publish package distributions to PyPI
         uses: pypa/gh-action-pypi-publish@release/v1