diff --git a/pkg/kubelet/kubelet.go b/pkg/kubelet/kubelet.go
index fb4a02ae6e3..d90d6b9ac8e 100644
--- a/pkg/kubelet/kubelet.go
+++ b/pkg/kubelet/kubelet.go
@@ -1071,6 +1071,11 @@ func (kl *Kubelet) initialNodeStatus() (*api.Node, error) {
 		}
 	} else {
 		node.Spec.ExternalID = kl.hostname
+		// If no cloud provider is defined - use the one detected by cadvisor
+		info, err := kl.GetCachedMachineInfo()
+		if err == nil {
+			kl.updateCloudProviderFromMachineInfo(node, info)
+		}
 	}
 	if err := kl.setNodeStatus(node); err != nil {
 		return nil, err
@@ -3030,6 +3035,18 @@ func (kl *Kubelet) setNodeAddress(node *api.Node) error {
 	return nil
 }
 
+func (kl *Kubelet) updateCloudProviderFromMachineInfo(node *api.Node, info *cadvisorapi.MachineInfo) {
+	if info.CloudProvider != cadvisorapi.UnknownProvider &&
+		info.CloudProvider != cadvisorapi.Baremetal {
+		// The cloud providers from pkg/cloudprovider/providers/* that update ProviderID
+		// will use the format of cloudprovider://project/availability_zone/instance_name
+		// here we only have the cloudprovider and the instance name so we leave project
+		// and availability zone empty for compatibility.
+		node.Spec.ProviderID = strings.ToLower(string(info.CloudProvider)) +
+			":////" + string(info.InstanceID)
+	}
+}
+
 func (kl *Kubelet) setNodeStatusMachineInfo(node *api.Node) {
 	// TODO: Post NotReady if we cannot get MachineInfo from cAdvisor. This needs to start
 	// cAdvisor locally, e.g. for test-cmd.sh, and in integration test.