diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index fbf8e2bb90e..df781f52cdd 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -249,6 +249,14 @@ option(LLVM_INCLUDE_TESTS "Generate build targets for the LLVM unit tests." ON)
 # BEFORE this include, otherwise options will not be correctly set on
 # first cmake run
 include(config-ix)
+
+# By default, we target the host, but this can be overridden at CMake
+# invocation time.
+set(LLVM_DEFAULT_TARGET_TRIPLE "${LLVM_HOST_TRIPLE}" CACHE STRING
+  "Default target for which LLVM will generate code." )
+set(TARGET_TRIPLE "${LLVM_DEFAULT_TARGET_TRIPLE}" CACHE STRING
+  "Default target for which LLVM will generate code." )
+
 include(HandleLLVMOptions)
 
 # Verify that we can find a Python interpreter,
diff --git a/cmake/config-ix.cmake b/cmake/config-ix.cmake
index 1e72258d448..94cc5551c8d 100755
--- a/cmake/config-ix.cmake
+++ b/cmake/config-ix.cmake
@@ -294,9 +294,7 @@ get_host_triple(LLVM_HOST_TRIPLE)
 
 # By default, we target the host, but this can be overridden at CMake
 # invocation time.
-set(LLVM_DEFAULT_TARGET_TRIPLE "${LLVM_HOST_TRIPLE}")
 set(LLVM_HOSTTRIPLE "${LLVM_HOST_TRIPLE}")
-set(TARGET_TRIPLE "${LLVM_DEFAULT_TARGET_TRIPLE}")
 
 # Determine the native architecture.
 string(TOLOWER "${LLVM_TARGET_ARCH}" LLVM_NATIVE_ARCH)