diff --git a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/openblas/package.py b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/openblas/package.py
index c2ac03fcd63..a2bd7da1cbe 100644
--- a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/openblas/package.py
+++ b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/openblas/package.py
@@ -43,6 +43,7 @@ class Openblas(MakefilePackage):
     variant('pic', default=True, description='Build position independent code')
     variant('shared', default=True, description='Build shared libraries')
     variant('consistent_fpcsr', default=False, description='Synchronize FP CSR between threads (x86/x86_64 only)')
+    variant('bignuma', default=False, description='Enable experimental support for up to 1024 CPUs/Cores and 128 numa nodes')
 
     variant('locking', default=True, description='Build with thread safety')
     variant(
@@ -303,6 +304,9 @@ def make_defs(self):
         if self.spec.satisfies('@0.3.13:'):
             make_defs.append('RANLIB=ranlib')
 
+        if self.spec.satisfies('+bignuma'):
+            make_defs.append('BIGNUMA=1')
+
         return make_defs
 
     @property