diff --git a/images/krte/cloudbuild.yaml b/images/krte/cloudbuild.yaml
index 87813b29c493..1deb47d92869 100644
--- a/images/krte/cloudbuild.yaml
+++ b/images/krte/cloudbuild.yaml
@@ -28,6 +28,8 @@ substitutions:
   _CFSSL_VERSION: R1.2
 options:
   substitution_option: ALLOW_LOOSE
+  # this is a large and critical CI image, builds are slow on the default 1 core
+  machineType: E2_HIGHCPU_32
 images:
   - 'gcr.io/$PROJECT_ID/krte:$_GIT_TAG-$_CONFIG'
   - 'gcr.io/$PROJECT_ID/krte:latest-$_CONFIG'
diff --git a/images/kubekins-e2e/cloudbuild.yaml b/images/kubekins-e2e/cloudbuild.yaml
index c634c47529f8..eac49e043cdb 100644
--- a/images/kubekins-e2e/cloudbuild.yaml
+++ b/images/kubekins-e2e/cloudbuild.yaml
@@ -50,6 +50,8 @@ substitutions:
 timeout: 1800s  
 options:
   substitution_option: ALLOW_LOOSE
+  # this is a large and critical CI image, builds are slow on the default 1 core
+  machineType: E2_HIGHCPU_32
 images:
   - 'gcr.io/$PROJECT_ID/kubekins-e2e:$_GIT_TAG-$_CONFIG'
   - 'gcr.io/$PROJECT_ID/kubekins-e2e:latest-$_CONFIG'