diff --git a/ci/build_wheel_cudf.sh b/ci/build_wheel_cudf.sh
index fef4416a366..ae4eb0d5c66 100755
--- a/ci/build_wheel_cudf.sh
+++ b/ci/build_wheel_cudf.sh
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ export PIP_CONSTRAINT="/tmp/constraints.txt"
 python -m auditwheel repair \
     --exclude libcudf.so \
     --exclude libnvcomp.so \
+    --exclude libkvikio.so \
     -w ${package_dir}/final_dist \
     ${package_dir}/dist/*
 
diff --git a/ci/build_wheel_libcudf.sh b/ci/build_wheel_libcudf.sh
index b3d6778ea04..aabd3814a24 100755
--- a/ci/build_wheel_libcudf.sh
+++ b/ci/build_wheel_libcudf.sh
@@ -33,6 +33,7 @@ RAPIDS_PY_CUDA_SUFFIX="$(rapids-wheel-ctk-name-gen ${RAPIDS_CUDA_VERSION})"
 mkdir -p ${package_dir}/final_dist
 python -m auditwheel repair \
     --exclude libnvcomp.so.4 \
+    --exclude libkvikio.so \
     -w ${package_dir}/final_dist \
     ${package_dir}/dist/*
 
diff --git a/ci/build_wheel_pylibcudf.sh b/ci/build_wheel_pylibcudf.sh
index 839d98846fe..c4a89f20f5f 100755
--- a/ci/build_wheel_pylibcudf.sh
+++ b/ci/build_wheel_pylibcudf.sh
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@ export PIP_CONSTRAINT="/tmp/constraints.txt"
 python -m auditwheel repair \
     --exclude libcudf.so \
     --exclude libnvcomp.so \
+    --exclude libkvikio.so \
     -w ${package_dir}/final_dist \
     ${package_dir}/dist/*
 
diff --git a/dependencies.yaml b/dependencies.yaml
index cc31619c217..41ac6ce1808 100644
--- a/dependencies.yaml
+++ b/dependencies.yaml
@@ -177,6 +177,7 @@ files:
     extras:
       table: project
     includes:
+      - depends_on_libkvikio
       - depends_on_nvcomp
   py_build_pylibcudf:
     output: pyproject
diff --git a/python/libcudf/libcudf/load.py b/python/libcudf/libcudf/load.py
index ba134710868..bf27ecfa7f5 100644
--- a/python/libcudf/libcudf/load.py
+++ b/python/libcudf/libcudf/load.py
@@ -18,6 +18,17 @@
 
 
 def load_library():
+    try:
+        # libkvikio must be loaded before libcudf because libcudf references its symbols
+        import libkvikio
+
+        libkvikio.load_library()
+    except ModuleNotFoundError:
+        # libcudf's runtime dependency on libkvikio may be satisfied by a natively
+        # installed library or a conda package, in which case the import will fail and
+        # we assume the library is discoverable on system paths.
+        pass
+
     # Dynamically load libcudf.so. Prefer a system library if one is present to
     # avoid clobbering symbols that other packages might expect, but if no
     # other library is present use the one in the wheel.
diff --git a/python/libcudf/pyproject.toml b/python/libcudf/pyproject.toml
index c6d9ae56467..62726bb0df4 100644
--- a/python/libcudf/pyproject.toml
+++ b/python/libcudf/pyproject.toml
@@ -38,6 +38,7 @@ classifiers = [
     "Environment :: GPU :: NVIDIA CUDA",
 ]
 dependencies = [
+    "libkvikio==24.12.*,>=0.0.0a0",
     "nvidia-nvcomp==4.1.0.6",
 ] # This list was generated by `rapids-dependency-file-generator`. To make changes, edit ../../dependencies.yaml and run `rapids-dependency-file-generator`.