diff --git a/pkgs/development/python-modules/tensorflow/bin.nix b/pkgs/development/python-modules/tensorflow/bin.nix
index 4184e3aff02b..221c75112b9b 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/python-modules/tensorflow/bin.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/python-modules/tensorflow/bin.nix
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@
 , cudaSupport ? false
 , cudatoolkit
 , cudnn
+, patchelfUnstable
 , zlib
 , python
 , keras-applications
@@ -78,7 +79,8 @@ in buildPythonPackage {
   ] ++ lib.optional (!isPy3k) mock
     ++ lib.optionals (pythonOlder "3.4") [ backports_weakref ];
 
-  nativeBuildInputs = [ wheel ] ++ lib.optional cudaSupport addOpenGLRunpath;
+  # remove patchelfUnstable once patchelf 0.14 with https://github.com/NixOS/patchelf/pull/256 becomes the default
+  nativeBuildInputs = [ wheel ] ++ lib.optional cudaSupport [ addOpenGLRunpath patchelfUnstable ];
 
   preConfigure = ''
     unset SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH
diff --git a/pkgs/development/python-modules/tensorflow/default.nix b/pkgs/development/python-modules/tensorflow/default.nix
index 01af29ceda41..b43ac71ba41e 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/python-modules/tensorflow/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/python-modules/tensorflow/default.nix
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 { stdenv, bazel_3, buildBazelPackage, isPy3k, lib, fetchFromGitHub, symlinkJoin
-, addOpenGLRunpath, fetchpatch
+, addOpenGLRunpath, fetchpatch, patchelfUnstable
 # Python deps
 , buildPythonPackage, pythonOlder, python
 # Python libraries
@@ -465,7 +465,8 @@ in buildPythonPackage {
     tensorflow-tensorboard
   ];
 
-  nativeBuildInputs = lib.optional cudaSupport addOpenGLRunpath;
+  # remove patchelfUnstable once patchelf 0.14 with https://github.com/NixOS/patchelf/pull/256 becomes the default
+  nativeBuildInputs = lib.optional cudaSupport [ addOpenGLRunpath patchelfUnstable ];
 
   postFixup = lib.optionalString cudaSupport ''
     find $out -type f \( -name '*.so' -or -name '*.so.*' \) | while read lib; do