diff --git a/internal/app/machined/pkg/runtime/v1alpha1/v1alpha1_sequencer_tasks.go b/internal/app/machined/pkg/runtime/v1alpha1/v1alpha1_sequencer_tasks.go
index 2fca16491..869812c7f 100644
--- a/internal/app/machined/pkg/runtime/v1alpha1/v1alpha1_sequencer_tasks.go
+++ b/internal/app/machined/pkg/runtime/v1alpha1/v1alpha1_sequencer_tasks.go
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ import (
 	"log"
 	"os"
 	"path/filepath"
+	goruntime "runtime"
 	"slices"
 	"strconv"
 	"strings"
@@ -64,6 +65,7 @@ import (
 	"github.com/siderolabs/talos/internal/pkg/partition"
 	"github.com/siderolabs/talos/internal/pkg/secureboot"
 	"github.com/siderolabs/talos/internal/pkg/secureboot/tpm2"
+	"github.com/siderolabs/talos/internal/zboot"
 	"github.com/siderolabs/talos/pkg/conditions"
 	"github.com/siderolabs/talos/pkg/images"
 	"github.com/siderolabs/talos/pkg/kernel/kspp"
@@ -2141,6 +2143,24 @@ func KexecPrepare(_ runtime.Sequence, data any) (runtime.TaskExecutionFunc, stri
 
 		defer kernel.Close() //nolint:errcheck
 
+		fd := int(kernel.Fd())
+
+		// on arm64 we need to extract the kernel from the zboot image if it's compressed
+		if goruntime.GOARCH == "arm64" {
+			var fileCloser io.Closer
+
+			fd, fileCloser, err = zboot.Extract(kernel)
+			if err != nil {
+				return err
+			}
+
+			defer func() {
+				if fileCloser != nil {
+					fileCloser.Close() //nolint:errcheck
+				}
+			}()
+		}
+
 		initrd, err := os.Open(initrdPath)
 		if err != nil {
 			return err
@@ -2150,7 +2170,7 @@ func KexecPrepare(_ runtime.Sequence, data any) (runtime.TaskExecutionFunc, stri
 
 		cmdline := strings.TrimSpace(defaultEntry.Cmdline)
 
-		if err = unix.KexecFileLoad(int(kernel.Fd()), int(initrd.Fd()), cmdline, 0); err != nil {
+		if err = unix.KexecFileLoad(fd, int(initrd.Fd()), cmdline, 0); err != nil {
 			switch {
 			case errors.Is(err, unix.ENOSYS):
 				log.Printf("kexec support is disabled in the kernel")
diff --git a/internal/zboot/zboot.go b/internal/zboot/zboot.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..4bc37694a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/internal/zboot/zboot.go
@@ -0,0 +1,79 @@
+// This Source Code Form is subject to the terms of the Mozilla Public
+// License, v. 2.0. If a copy of the MPL was not distributed with this
+// file, You can obtain one at http://mozilla.org/MPL/2.0/.
+
+// Package zboot provides a function to extract the kernel from a Zboot image.
+package zboot
+
+import (
+	"bytes"
+	"encoding/binary"
+	"fmt"
+	"io"
+	"os"
+
+	"github.com/klauspost/compress/zstd"
+	"golang.org/x/sys/unix"
+)
+
+// fileCloser is an interface that wraps the Close method.
+type fileCloser interface {
+	Close() error
+}
+
+// Extract extracts the kernel from a Zboot image and returns a file descriptor of the extracted kernel.
+func Extract(kernel *os.File) (int, fileCloser, error) {
+	// https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/utils/kernel/kexec/kexec-tools.git/tree/include/kexec-pe-zboot.h
+	var peZbootheaderData [28]byte
+
+	if _, err := io.ReadFull(kernel, peZbootheaderData[:]); err != nil {
+		return 0, nil, err
+	}
+
+	// https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git/tree/drivers/firmware/efi/libstub/zboot-header.S
+	// https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git/tree/include/linux/pe.h#n42
+	if !bytes.Equal(peZbootheaderData[:2], []byte("MZ")) {
+		return 0, nil, fmt.Errorf("invalid PE Zboot header")
+	}
+
+	// not a Zboot image, return
+	if !bytes.Equal(peZbootheaderData[4:8], []byte("zimg")) {
+		return int(kernel.Fd()), nil, nil
+	}
+
+	payloadOffset := binary.LittleEndian.Uint32(peZbootheaderData[8:12])
+
+	payloadSize := binary.LittleEndian.Uint32(peZbootheaderData[12:16])
+
+	if _, err := kernel.Seek(int64(payloadOffset), io.SeekStart); err != nil {
+		return 0, nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to seek to kernel zstd data from vmlinuz.efi: %w", err)
+	}
+
+	z, err := zstd.NewReader(io.LimitReader(kernel, int64(payloadSize)))
+	if err != nil {
+		return 0, nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to create zstd reader: %w", err)
+	}
+
+	defer z.Close()
+
+	fd, err := unix.MemfdCreate("vmlinux", 0)
+	if err != nil {
+		return 0, nil, fmt.Errorf("memfdCreate: %v", err)
+	}
+
+	kernelMemfd := os.NewFile(uintptr(fd), "vmlinux")
+
+	if _, err := io.Copy(kernelMemfd, z); err != nil {
+		kernelMemfd.Close() //nolint:errcheck
+
+		return 0, nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to copy zstd data to memfd: %w", err)
+	}
+
+	if _, err := kernelMemfd.Seek(0, io.SeekStart); err != nil {
+		kernelMemfd.Close() //nolint:errcheck
+
+		return 0, nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to seek to start of memfd: %w", err)
+	}
+
+	return fd, kernelMemfd, nil
+}