diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 5a9d901dee8..efb3fcc24ff 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -309,10 +309,6 @@ configure_file(${Ginkgo_SOURCE_DIR}/include/ginkgo/config.hpp.in
 # propagated to the other parts of Ginkgo in case of building as static libraries
 add_subdirectory(devices)        # Basic device functionalities. Always compiled.
 add_subdirectory(common)         # Import list of unified kernel source files
-if(GINKGO_BUILD_TESTS)
-    # use custom target `tests` to build only test binaries
-    add_custom_target(tests)
-endif()
 if(GINKGO_BUILD_CUDA)
     add_subdirectory(cuda)       # High-performance kernels for NVIDIA GPUs
 endif()
diff --git a/cmake/create_test.cmake b/cmake/create_test.cmake
index 375135dcb13..4dd6bd12125 100644
--- a/cmake/create_test.cmake
+++ b/cmake/create_test.cmake
@@ -100,8 +100,6 @@ function(ginkgo_add_test test_name test_target_name)
                  COMMAND ${test_target_name}
                  WORKING_DIRECTORY "$<TARGET_FILE_DIR:ginkgo>")
     endif()
-    # use custom target `tests` to build only test binaries
-    add_dependencies(tests ${test_target_name})
 
     ginkgo_add_resource_requirement(${REL_BINARY_DIR}/${test_name} ${ARGN})