diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 0aa666e7b679..2a34555a361c 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -56,6 +56,11 @@ def get_nvcc_cuda_version(cuda_dir: str) -> Version:
     NVCC_FLAGS += ["-gencode", f"arch=compute_{capability},code=sm_{capability}"]
 
 # Validate the NVCC CUDA version.
+if CUDA_HOME is None:
+  raise ValueError(
+    "Could not find CUDA_HOME variable, "
+    "please check your CUDA installation."
+  )
 nvcc_cuda_version = get_nvcc_cuda_version(CUDA_HOME)
 if nvcc_cuda_version < Version("11.0"):
     raise RuntimeError("CUDA 11.0 or higher is required to build the package.")