diff --git a/src/jitlayers.cpp b/src/jitlayers.cpp
index eda841cbadb73..50316c258d3a0 100644
--- a/src/jitlayers.cpp
+++ b/src/jitlayers.cpp
@@ -814,13 +814,20 @@ namespace {
         SmallVector<std::string, 10> targetFeatures(target.second.begin(), target.second.end());
         std::string errorstr;
         const Target *TheTarget = TargetRegistry::lookupTarget("", TheTriple, errorstr);
-        if (!TheTarget)
-            jl_errorf("%s", errorstr.c_str());
+        if (!TheTarget) {
+            // Note we are explicitly not using `jl_errorf()` here, as it will attempt to
+            // collect a backtrace, but we're too early in LLVM initialization for that.
+            jl_printf(JL_STDERR, "ERROR: %s", errorstr.c_str());
+            exit(1);
+        }
         if (jl_processor_print_help || (target_flags & JL_TARGET_UNKNOWN_NAME)) {
             std::unique_ptr<MCSubtargetInfo> MSTI(
                 TheTarget->createMCSubtargetInfo(TheTriple.str(), "", ""));
-            if (!MSTI->isCPUStringValid(TheCPU))
-                jl_errorf("Invalid CPU name \"%s\".", TheCPU.c_str());
+            if (!MSTI->isCPUStringValid(TheCPU)) {
+                // Same as above, we are too early to use `jl_errorf()` here.
+                jl_printf(JL_STDERR, "ERROR: Invalid CPU name \"%s\".", TheCPU.c_str());
+                exit(1);
+            }
             if (jl_processor_print_help) {
                 // This is the only way I can find to print the help message once.
                 // It'll be nice if we can iterate through the features and print our own help