diff --git a/cmake/onnxruntime_providers.cmake b/cmake/onnxruntime_providers.cmake
index 94c907aa50495..b9e7873132089 100644
--- a/cmake/onnxruntime_providers.cmake
+++ b/cmake/onnxruntime_providers.cmake
@@ -729,6 +729,7 @@ if (onnxruntime_USE_TENSORRT)
     onnxruntime_fetchcontent_makeavailable(onnx_tensorrt)
     include_directories(${onnx_tensorrt_SOURCE_DIR})
     set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS ${OLD_CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS})
+    set(CUDA_INCLUDE_DIR ${CMAKE_CUDA_TOOLKIT_INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES}) # onnx-tensorrt repo needs this variable to build
     if ( CMAKE_COMPILER_IS_GNUCC )
       set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS  "${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS} -Wno-unused-parameter")
     endif()