diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index f362e701..18419c01 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -48,7 +48,12 @@ find = { include = ["chgnet*"], exclude = ["tests", "tests*"] }
 "chgnet.pretrained" = ["*", "**/*"]
 
 [build-system]
-requires = ["Cython", "numpy>=2", "setuptools>=65", "wheel"]
+requires = [
+    "Cython",
+    "setuptools>=65",
+    "wheel",
+    "numpy>=2.0.0",
+]
 build-backend = "setuptools.build_meta"
 
 [tool.ruff]
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index e01c2685..ab494d5a 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -1,19 +1,12 @@
 from __future__ import annotations
 
+import numpy as np
 from setuptools import Extension, setup
 
 ext_modules = [Extension("chgnet.graph.cygraph", ["chgnet/graph/cygraph.pyx"])]
 
-
-def lazy_numpy_include() -> str:
-    """Get the numpy include directory lazily."""
-    import numpy as np
-
-    return np.get_include()
-
-
 setup(
     ext_modules=ext_modules,
     setup_requires=["Cython"],
-    include_dirs=[lazy_numpy_include()],
+    include_dirs=[np.get_include()],
 )