diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index b761929523..c003f39ac1 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -165,7 +165,6 @@ endif()
 add_subdirectory(vendor/xtl)
 set(xtl_DIR ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/vendor/xtl)
 add_subdirectory(vendor/xtensor)
-target_link_libraries(xtensor INTERFACE xtl)
 
 #===============================================================================
 # GSL header-only library