diff --git a/build_packages b/build_packages
index 6a9f5f9..dfda48d 100755
--- a/build_packages
+++ b/build_packages
@@ -441,6 +441,7 @@
 # to `emerge` below once we figure out how to exclude toolchain packages from
 # being upgraded transitively via BDEPEND relations.
 CRITICAL_SDK_PACKAGES=(
+  "dev-lang/rust"
   "sys-libs/glibc"
   "sys-devel/gcc"
 )