diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 7863d2a8de6c..89e1eb75c819 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -408,7 +408,6 @@ KBUILD_HOSTLDFLAGS  := $(HOST_LFS_LDFLAGS) $(HOSTLDFLAGS)
 KBUILD_HOSTLDLIBS   := $(HOST_LFS_LIBS) $(HOSTLDLIBS)
 
 # Make variables (CC, etc...)
-AS		= $(CROSS_COMPILE)as
 LD		= $(CROSS_COMPILE)ld
 CC		= $(CROSS_COMPILE)gcc
 CPP		= $(CC) -E
@@ -475,7 +474,7 @@ KBUILD_LDFLAGS :=
 GCC_PLUGINS_CFLAGS :=
 CLANG_FLAGS :=
 
-export ARCH SRCARCH CONFIG_SHELL BASH HOSTCC KBUILD_HOSTCFLAGS CROSS_COMPILE AS LD CC
+export ARCH SRCARCH CONFIG_SHELL BASH HOSTCC KBUILD_HOSTCFLAGS CROSS_COMPILE LD CC
 export CPP AR NM STRIP OBJCOPY OBJDUMP OBJSIZE READELF PAHOLE LEX YACC AWK INSTALLKERNEL
 export PERL PYTHON PYTHON3 CHECK CHECKFLAGS MAKE UTS_MACHINE HOSTCXX
 export KBUILD_HOSTCXXFLAGS KBUILD_HOSTLDFLAGS KBUILD_HOSTLDLIBS LDFLAGS_MODULE
@@ -538,7 +537,7 @@ endif
 ifneq ($(GCC_TOOLCHAIN),)
 CLANG_FLAGS	+= --gcc-toolchain=$(GCC_TOOLCHAIN)
 endif
-ifeq ($(shell $(AS) --version 2>&1 | head -n 1 | grep clang),)
+ifeq ($(if $(AS),$(shell $(AS) --version 2>&1 | head -n 1 | grep clang)),)
 CLANG_FLAGS	+= -no-integrated-as
 endif
 CLANG_FLAGS	+= -Werror=unknown-warning-option