diff --git a/tflite_micro.cmake b/tflite_micro.cmake
index 52289013a288fd9b312001e294f66df1cb696250..648ff61d67e0440be9ce19e9a7ace89bbbdcef33 100644
--- a/tflite_micro.cmake
+++ b/tflite_micro.cmake
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 #
-# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: Copyright 2021-2024 Arm Limited and/or its affiliates <open-source-office@arm.com>
+# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: Copyright 2021-2025 Arm Limited and/or its affiliates <open-source-office@arm.com>
 # SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
 #
 # Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the License); you may
@@ -131,10 +131,10 @@ target_include_directories(tflu PUBLIC
 #############################################################################
 
 if (NOT ${CORE_SOFTWARE_ACCELERATOR} STREQUAL "CPU")
-    add_subdirectory(${CMSIS_NN_PATH} cmsis_nn)
+    set(CMSIS_OPTIMIZATION_LEVEL ${TFLM_OPTIMIZATION_LEVEL}
+        CACHE STRING "Compiler optimization level for CMSIS-NN")
 
-    target_compile_options(cmsis-nn PRIVATE
-        ${TFLM_OPTIMIZATION_LEVEL})
+    add_subdirectory(${CMSIS_NN_PATH} cmsis_nn)
 
     # Enable optional restrict keyword.
     # See CMSIS-NN/README.md#compiler-options for more info.