diff --git a/nixos/modules/virtualisation/amazon-image.nix b/nixos/modules/virtualisation/amazon-image.nix
index 73d8723e452f..ad6bcb30d2b6 100644
--- a/nixos/modules/virtualisation/amazon-image.nix
+++ b/nixos/modules/virtualisation/amazon-image.nix
@@ -102,6 +102,7 @@ in
         file
         gzip
         mktemp
+        xz
       ];
       script = builtins.readFile ./ec2-metadata-fetcher.sh;
       serviceConfig.Type = "oneshot";
diff --git a/nixos/modules/virtualisation/ec2-metadata-fetcher.sh b/nixos/modules/virtualisation/ec2-metadata-fetcher.sh
index 49db37c09b8d..9e9ab3cf53d3 100644
--- a/nixos/modules/virtualisation/ec2-metadata-fetcher.sh
+++ b/nixos/modules/virtualisation/ec2-metadata-fetcher.sh
@@ -70,6 +70,7 @@ try_decompress() {
   case $ftype in
     gzip*)  decompress_cmd=zcat ;;
     bzip2*) decompress_cmd=bzcat ;;
+    XZ*)    decompress_cmd=xzcat ;;
     *)      return ;;
   esac
   echo "decompressing: $1"
diff --git a/nixos/tests/ec2-image.nix b/nixos/tests/ec2-image.nix
index cfd0b083befb..5cfc663dcedd 100644
--- a/nixos/tests/ec2-image.nix
+++ b/nixos/tests/ec2-image.nix
@@ -278,6 +278,11 @@ in
             test_data = b"#!/bin/bash\necho bzip2-decompression-test\n"
             test_userdata_decompression(machine, user_data_path, bz2.compress(test_data), "bzip2")
 
+        with subtest("Decompression of xz-compressed user-data"):
+            import lzma
+            test_data = b"#!/bin/bash\necho xz-decompression-test\n"
+            test_userdata_decompression(machine, user_data_path, lzma.compress(test_data), "xz")
+
     finally:
         machine.shutdown()
         temp_dir.cleanup()