diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 06cf5bca939..e0caa67175e 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@ python/cudf/cudf-coverage.xml
 python/cudf/*/_lib/**/*\.cpp
 python/cudf/*/_lib/**/*.h
 python/cudf/*/_lib/.nfs*
+python/cudf/_cuda/*\.cpp
 python/cudf/*.ipynb
 python/cudf/.ipynb_checkpoints
 python/nvstrings/nvstrings-coverage.xml
diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 7d673c839cc..2adfaf9dd98 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -44,6 +44,7 @@
 - PR #4767 Remove linking against `gtest_main` and `gmock_main` in unit tests
 - PR #4660 Port `cudf::partition` api to python/cython
 - PR #4778 Remove `scatter_to_tables` from libcudf, cython and python
+- PR #4793 Add `cudf._cuda` to setup.py
 
 ## Bug Fixes
 
diff --git a/python/cudf/cudf/_cuda/__init__.pxd b/python/cudf/cudf/_cuda/__init__.pxd
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..e69de29bb2d
diff --git a/python/cudf/setup.py b/python/cudf/setup.py
index 28ff7f79e90..0708d437b76 100644
--- a/python/cudf/setup.py
+++ b/python/cudf/setup.py
@@ -86,7 +86,7 @@
     ),
     packages=find_packages(include=["cudf", "cudf.*"]),
     package_data=dict.fromkeys(
-        find_packages(include=["cudf._lib*"]), ["*.pxd"],
+        find_packages(include=["cudf._lib*", "cudf._cuda*"]), ["*.pxd"],
     ),
     cmdclass=versioneer.get_cmdclass(),
     install_requires=install_requires,