diff --git a/lib/IR/DataLayout.cpp b/lib/IR/DataLayout.cpp
index d1506b20cff..9c1dee0cfb7 100644
--- a/lib/IR/DataLayout.cpp
+++ b/lib/IR/DataLayout.cpp
@@ -424,7 +424,10 @@ DataLayout::findPointerLowerBound(uint32_t AddressSpace) {
 void DataLayout::setPointerAlignment(uint32_t AddrSpace, unsigned ABIAlign,
                                      unsigned PrefAlign,
                                      uint32_t TypeByteWidth) {
-  assert(ABIAlign <= PrefAlign && "Preferred alignment worse than ABI!");
+  if (PrefAlign < ABIAlign)
+    report_fatal_error(
+        "Preferred alignment cannot be less than the ABI alignment");
+
   PointersTy::iterator I = findPointerLowerBound(AddrSpace);
   if (I == Pointers.end() || I->AddressSpace != AddrSpace) {
     Pointers.insert(I, PointerAlignElem::get(AddrSpace, ABIAlign, PrefAlign,
diff --git a/test/Assembler/invalid-datalayout18.ll b/test/Assembler/invalid-datalayout18.ll
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..b9956f98c9c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/Assembler/invalid-datalayout18.ll
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+; RUN: not llvm-as < %s 2>&1 | FileCheck %s
+target datalayout = "p:32:32:16"
+; CHECK: Preferred alignment cannot be less than the ABI alignment