diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 9e621335f8..31073c879a 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -25,7 +25,6 @@ option(BUILD_TESTS "Build tests" OFF)
 option(USE_OPENMP "Use OpenMP to accelerate analytic placer" OFF)
 option(STATIC_BUILD "Create static build" OFF)
 option(EXTERNAL_CHIPDB "Create build with pre-built chipdb binaries" OFF)
-option(SERIALIZE_CHIPDBS "Serialize device data preprocessing to minimize memory use" ON)
 option(WERROR "pass -Werror to compiler (used for CI)" OFF)
 option(PROFILER "Link against libprofiler" OFF)
 option(USE_IPO "Compile nextpnr with IPO" ON)
@@ -67,8 +66,6 @@ else()
     set(BBASM_MODE "string")
 endif()
 
-set(BBASM_SERIALIZE ${SERIALIZE_CHIPDBS})
-
 find_package(Threads)
 if (NOT Threads_FOUND)
     add_definitions(-DNPNR_DISABLE_THREADS)
diff --git a/cmake/BBAsm.cmake b/cmake/BBAsm.cmake
index 1e456c5f34..c72b64deca 100644
--- a/cmake/BBAsm.cmake
+++ b/cmake/BBAsm.cmake
@@ -39,20 +39,9 @@ function(add_bba_produce_command)
         DEPENDS
             ${arg_EXECUTABLE}
             ${arg_INPUTS}
-            $ENV{SERIALIZE_BBA_TARGET}
         VERBATIM
     )
 
-    if (BBASM_SERIALIZE)
-        # Have to insert a custom target in between two custom commands, else CMake will try to
-        # depend on the previous (in serialization order) command directly, which will fail if
-        # they're in different directories. Unfortunately this makes the terminal output uglier.
-        math(EXPR next_count "$ENV{SERIALIZE_BBA_COUNT} + 1")
-        add_custom_target(--bbasm-serialize-${next_count} DEPENDS ${arg_OUTPUT})
-        set(ENV{SERIALIZE_BBA_COUNT} ${next_count})
-        set(ENV{SERIALIZE_BBA_TARGET} --bbasm-serialize-${next_count})
-    endif()
-
 endfunction()
 
 # Example usage: