diff --git a/cmake/CMakeLists.txt b/cmake/CMakeLists.txt
index 8ee629c5b4984be423810977266a32976564ce00..5b52a7d6e63326f861588028d9acafb83459d545 100644
--- a/cmake/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/cmake/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -414,6 +414,7 @@ if(PKG_MSCG)
     set(MSCG_INCLUDE_DIRS ${SOURCE_DIR}/src)
     list(APPEND LAMMPS_DEPS mscg_build)
     if(NOT LAPACK_FOUND)
+      file(MAKE_DIRECTORY ${MSCG_INCLUDE_DIRS})
       add_dependencies(mscg_build linalg)
     endif()
   else()