diff --git a/go/private/sdk.bzl b/go/private/sdk.bzl
index 62cee75704..fc1d6a00b0 100644
--- a/go/private/sdk.bzl
+++ b/go/private/sdk.bzl
@@ -25,13 +25,14 @@ go_host_sdk = repository_rule(_go_host_sdk_impl, environ = ["GOROOT"])
 
 def _go_download_sdk_impl(ctx):
   if ctx.os.name == 'linux':
+    host = "linux_amd64"
     res = ctx.execute(['uname', '-p'])
-    if res.return_code == 0 and res.stdout == 's390x':
-      host = "linux_s390x"
-    else:
-      # uname -p, -i, and -m can return wildly different values on different
-      # distributions and versions. Always default to amd64.
-      host = "linux_amd64"
+    if res.return_code == 0:
+      if res.stdout == 's390x':
+        host = "linux_s390x"
+      elif res.stdout == 'ppc64le':
+        host = "linux_ppc64le"
+    # Default to amd64 when uname doesn't return a known value.
   elif ctx.os.name == 'mac os x':
     host = "darwin_amd64"
   elif ctx.os.name.startswith('windows'):