diff --git a/virt.yaml b/virt.yaml
index b848099..4aeecff 100644
--- a/virt.yaml
+++ b/virt.yaml
@@ -34,6 +34,10 @@ data:
       - ocaml-libnbd-devel
       - qemu-kvm-tests
       - qemu-kvm-tests-debuginfo
+  buildopts:
+    rpms:
+      macros: |
+        %_smp_ncpus_max 16
   components:
     rpms:
       SLOF: