diff --git a/hack/update-bazel.sh b/hack/update-bazel.sh
index 9e7eb55b48e..c45ab3b6f0a 100755
--- a/hack/update-bazel.sh
+++ b/hack/update-bazel.sh
@@ -19,12 +19,17 @@ set -o pipefail
 
 KUBE_ROOT=$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")/..
 
-# delete all bazel related files
-find "${KUBE_ROOT}" \( \
-  -name BUILD \
-  -o -name BUILD.bazel \
-  -o -name '*.bzl' \
-\) \
+# delete all bazel related files not in vendor/
+find "${KUBE_ROOT}" \
+  \( \
+    -name BUILD \
+    -o -name BUILD.bazel \
+    -o -name '*.bzl' \
+  \) \
+  -not \
+  \( \
+    -path "${KUBE_ROOT}"'/vendor*' \
+  \) \
   -delete
 
 # remove additional one-off bazel related files
diff --git a/hack/update-vendor.sh b/hack/update-vendor.sh
index e881587395a..bc7796c2ebe 100755
--- a/hack/update-vendor.sh
+++ b/hack/update-vendor.sh
@@ -378,15 +378,6 @@ for repo in $(kube::util::list_staging_repos); do
   ln -s "../../staging/src/k8s.io/${repo}" "${KUBE_ROOT}/vendor/k8s.io/${repo}"
 done
 
-kube::log::status "vendor: updating BUILD files"
-# Assume that anything imported through vendor doesn't need Bazel to build.
-# Prune out any Bazel build files, since these can break the build due to
-# missing dependencies that aren't included by go mod vendor.
-find vendor/ -type f \
-    \( -name BUILD -o -name BUILD.bazel -o -name WORKSPACE \) \
-    -exec rm -f {} \;
-hack/update-bazel.sh >>"${LOG_FILE}" 2>&1
-
 kube::log::status "vendor: updating vendor/LICENSES"
 hack/update-vendor-licenses.sh >>"${LOG_FILE}" 2>&1