diff --git a/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/org/elasticsearch/gradle/BuildPlugin.groovy b/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/org/elasticsearch/gradle/BuildPlugin.groovy
index b688746240fef..2560aab20f48c 100644
--- a/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/org/elasticsearch/gradle/BuildPlugin.groovy
+++ b/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/org/elasticsearch/gradle/BuildPlugin.groovy
@@ -910,7 +910,7 @@ class BuildPlugin implements Plugin<Project> {
                 args '-n', 'hw.physicalcpu'
                 standardOutput = stdout
             }
-            return stdout.toString('UTF-8')
+            return stdout.toString('UTF-8').trim();
         }
         return 'auto';
     }