diff --git a/pytorch_lightning/plugins/precision/native_amp.py b/pytorch_lightning/plugins/precision/native_amp.py
index ae9f261085229..4c34bed972067 100644
--- a/pytorch_lightning/plugins/precision/native_amp.py
+++ b/pytorch_lightning/plugins/precision/native_amp.py
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@
 
 import pytorch_lightning as pl
 from pytorch_lightning.plugins.precision.mixed import MixedPrecisionPlugin
-from pytorch_lightning.utilities import _NATIVE_AMP_AVAILABLE, _TORCH_GREATER_EQUAL_1_10, AMPType
+from pytorch_lightning.utilities import _NATIVE_AMP_AVAILABLE, _TORCH_BFLOAT_AVAILABLE, AMPType
 from pytorch_lightning.utilities.exceptions import MisconfigurationException
 
 
@@ -46,7 +46,7 @@ def __init__(self, precision: Union[int, str] = 16) -> None:
 
     def _select_precision_dtype(self, precision: Union[int, str] = 16) -> torch.dtype:
         if precision == "bf16":
-            if not _TORCH_GREATER_EQUAL_1_10:
+            if not _TORCH_BFLOAT_AVAILABLE:
                 raise MisconfigurationException(
                     "To use bfloat16 with native amp you must install torch greater or equal to 1.10."
                 )
diff --git a/pytorch_lightning/utilities/__init__.py b/pytorch_lightning/utilities/__init__.py
index 747c0be617cbd..56e3e03910de9 100644
--- a/pytorch_lightning/utilities/__init__.py
+++ b/pytorch_lightning/utilities/__init__.py
@@ -44,6 +44,7 @@
     _OMEGACONF_AVAILABLE,
     _POPTORCH_AVAILABLE,
     _RICH_AVAILABLE,
+    _TORCH_BFLOAT_AVAILABLE,
     _TORCH_GREATER_EQUAL_1_7,
     _TORCH_GREATER_EQUAL_1_8,
     _TORCH_GREATER_EQUAL_1_9,
diff --git a/pytorch_lightning/utilities/imports.py b/pytorch_lightning/utilities/imports.py
index fa6598f884b19..dd31d23f6cf84 100644
--- a/pytorch_lightning/utilities/imports.py
+++ b/pytorch_lightning/utilities/imports.py
@@ -87,8 +87,13 @@ def _compare_version(package: str, op, version) -> bool:
 _OMEGACONF_AVAILABLE = _module_available("omegaconf")
 _POPTORCH_AVAILABLE = _module_available("poptorch")
 _RICH_AVAILABLE = _module_available("rich")
+_TORCH_BFLOAT_AVAILABLE = _compare_version(
+    "torch", operator.ge, "1.10.0.dev20210820"
+)  # todo: swap to 1.10.0 once released
 _TORCH_QUANTIZE_AVAILABLE = bool([eg for eg in torch.backends.quantized.supported_engines if eg != "none"])
-_TORCH_SHARDED_TENSOR_AVAILABLE = _compare_version("torch", operator.ge, "1.10.0.dev20210809")
+_TORCH_SHARDED_TENSOR_AVAILABLE = _compare_version(
+    "torch", operator.ge, "1.10.0.dev20210809"
+)  # todo: swap to 1.10.0 once released
 _TORCHTEXT_AVAILABLE = _module_available("torchtext")
 _TORCHVISION_AVAILABLE = _module_available("torchvision")
 _TORCHMETRICS_LOWER_THAN_0_3 = _compare_version("torchmetrics", operator.lt, "0.3.0")
diff --git a/tests/models/test_amp.py b/tests/models/test_amp.py
index 79c0cf7c12f15..173d1f8a0d1f8 100644
--- a/tests/models/test_amp.py
+++ b/tests/models/test_amp.py
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@
 import tests.helpers.utils as tutils
 from pytorch_lightning import Trainer
 from pytorch_lightning.plugins.environments import SLURMEnvironment
-from pytorch_lightning.utilities import _TORCH_GREATER_EQUAL_1_10
+from pytorch_lightning.utilities import _TORCH_BFLOAT_AVAILABLE
 from pytorch_lightning.utilities.exceptions import MisconfigurationException
 from tests.helpers import BoringModel, RandomDataset
 from tests.helpers.runif import RunIf
@@ -71,7 +71,7 @@ def predict(self, batch, batch_idx, dataloader_idx=None):
         16,
         pytest.param(
             "bf16",
-            marks=pytest.mark.skipif(not _TORCH_GREATER_EQUAL_1_10, reason="torch.bfloat16 not available"),
+            marks=pytest.mark.skipif(not _TORCH_BFLOAT_AVAILABLE, reason="torch.bfloat16 not available"),
         ),
     ],
 )