diff --git a/arch/arc/Kconfig b/arch/arc/Kconfig
index 8a188bc1786a2..7981ea86c5bd4 100644
--- a/arch/arc/Kconfig
+++ b/arch/arc/Kconfig
@@ -458,7 +458,6 @@ config ARC_HAS_PAE40
 	bool "Support for the 40-bit Physical Address Extension"
 	default n
 	depends on ISA_ARCV2
-	select HIGHMEM
 	help
 	  Enable access to physical memory beyond 4G, only supported on
 	  ARC cores with 40 bit Physical Addressing support