diff --git a/mlir/lib/Dialect/Linalg/Transforms/ComprehensiveBufferize.cpp b/mlir/lib/Dialect/Linalg/Transforms/ComprehensiveBufferize.cpp
--- a/mlir/lib/Dialect/Linalg/Transforms/ComprehensiveBufferize.cpp
+++ b/mlir/lib/Dialect/Linalg/Transforms/ComprehensiveBufferize.cpp
@@ -552,13 +552,11 @@
 
 /// Determine which OpOperand* will alias with `result` if the op is bufferized
 /// in place.
-/// Return None if the owner of `opOperand` does not have known
-/// bufferization aliasing behavior, which indicates that the op must allocate
-/// all of its tensor results.
 /// TODO: in the future this may need to evolve towards a list of OpOperand*.
-static Optional<OpOperand *> getAliasingOpOperand(OpResult result) {
+static OpOperand *getAliasingOpOperand(OpResult result) {
+  // Unknown ops are handled conservatively and never bufferize in-place.
   if (!hasKnownBufferizationAliasingBehavior(result.getDefiningOp()))
-    return None;
+    return nullptr;
   return TypeSwitch<Operation *, OpOperand *>(result.getDefiningOp())
       .Case([&](tensor::CastOp op) { return &op->getOpOperand(0); })
       .Case([&](ConstantOp op) { return nullptr; })
@@ -1118,9 +1116,8 @@
       Operation *candidateOp = mit->v.getDefiningOp();
       if (!candidateOp)
         continue;
-      auto maybeAliasingOperand = getAliasingOpOperand(mit->v.cast<OpResult>());
-      if (!maybeAliasingOperand || !*maybeAliasingOperand ||
-          !bufferizesToMemoryWrite(**maybeAliasingOperand))
+      OpOperand *operand = getAliasingOpOperand(mit->v.cast<OpResult>());
+      if (!operand || !bufferizesToMemoryWrite(*operand))
         continue;
       LDBG("---->clobbering candidate: " << printOperationInfo(candidateOp)
                                          << '\n');
@@ -1406,9 +1403,9 @@
                              bool skipCopy = false) {
   OpBuilder::InsertionGuard guard(b);
   Operation *op = result.getOwner();
-  Optional<OpOperand *> maybeOperand = getAliasingOpOperand(result);
+  OpOperand *maybeOperand = getAliasingOpOperand(result);
   assert(maybeOperand && "corresponding OpOperand not found");
-  Value operand = (*maybeOperand)->get();
+  Value operand = maybeOperand->get();
   Value operandBuffer = lookup(bvm, operand);
   assert(operandBuffer && "operand buffer not found");