diff --git a/src/codegen.cpp b/src/codegen.cpp
index 517577df0f324..cfd0e7154ce68 100644
--- a/src/codegen.cpp
+++ b/src/codegen.cpp
@@ -8258,13 +8258,20 @@ extern "C" void jl_init_llvm(void)
     SmallVector<std::string, 10> targetFeatures(target.second.begin(), target.second.end());
     std::string errorstr;
     const Target *TheTarget = TargetRegistry::lookupTarget("", TheTriple, errorstr);
-    if (!TheTarget)
-        jl_errorf("%s", errorstr.c_str());
+    if (!TheTarget) {
+        // Note we are explicitly not using `jl_errorf()` here, as it will attempt to
+        // collect a backtrace, but we're too early in LLVM initialization for that.
+        jl_printf(JL_STDERR, "ERROR: %s", errorstr.c_str());
+        exit(1);
+    }
     if (jl_processor_print_help || (target_flags & JL_TARGET_UNKNOWN_NAME)) {
         std::unique_ptr<MCSubtargetInfo> MSTI(
             TheTarget->createMCSubtargetInfo(TheTriple.str(), "", ""));
-        if (!MSTI->isCPUStringValid(TheCPU))
-            jl_errorf("Invalid CPU name \"%s\".", TheCPU.c_str());
+        if (!MSTI->isCPUStringValid(TheCPU)) {
+            // Same as above, we are too early to use `jl_errorf()` here.
+            jl_printf(JL_STDERR, "ERROR: Invalid CPU name \"%s\".", TheCPU.c_str());
+            exit(1);
+        }
         if (jl_processor_print_help) {
             // This is the only way I can find to print the help message once.
             // It'll be nice if we can iterate through the features and print our own help