diff --git a/tasks/tests.py b/tasks/tests.py
index 5478ea276..440c58155 100644
--- a/tasks/tests.py
+++ b/tasks/tests.py
@@ -4,6 +4,8 @@
 from subprocess import run
 from tasks.util.env import FAABRIC_STATIC_BUILD_DIR, PROJ_ROOT
 
+IS_CI = "HOST_TYPE" in environ and environ["HOST_TYPE"] == "ci"
+
 TEST_ENV = {
     "LOG_LEVEL": "info",
     "PLANNER_HOST": "localhost",
@@ -23,6 +25,10 @@
     "UBSAN_OPTIONS": "print_stacktrace=1:halt_on_error=1",
 }
 
+# If executing in CI, give us some extra CPU cores to run the tests
+if IS_CI:
+    TEST_ENV["OVERRIDE_CPU_COUNT"] = 5
+
 
 @task(default=True)
 def tests(