diff --git a/llvm/lib/Target/RISCV/MCTargetDesc/RISCVAsmBackend.cpp b/llvm/lib/Target/RISCV/MCTargetDesc/RISCVAsmBackend.cpp
--- a/llvm/lib/Target/RISCV/MCTargetDesc/RISCVAsmBackend.cpp
+++ b/llvm/lib/Target/RISCV/MCTargetDesc/RISCVAsmBackend.cpp
@@ -357,8 +357,10 @@
   bool HasStdExtC = STI->getFeatureBits()[RISCV::FeatureStdExtC];
   unsigned MinNopLen = HasStdExtC ? 2 : 4;
 
-  if ((Count % MinNopLen) != 0)
-    return false;
+  // If the count is not 4-byte (or 2 byte if HasStdExtC) aligned, we must be writing data into the text
+  // section (otherwise we have unaligned instructions, and thus have far
+  // bigger problems), so just write zeros instead.
+  OS.write_zeros(Count % MinNopLen);
 
   // The canonical nop on RISC-V is addi x0, x0, 0.
   for (; Count >= 4; Count -= 4)
diff --git a/llvm/test/MC/RISCV/align-odd.s b/llvm/test/MC/RISCV/align-odd.s
new file mode 100644
--- /dev/null
+++ b/llvm/test/MC/RISCV/align-odd.s
@@ -0,0 +1,82 @@
+# RUN: llvm-mc -filetype=obj -triple riscv64 -mattr=+c,-relax < %s \
+# RUN:     | llvm-objdump -d - | FileCheck -check-prefix=RV64-C-EXT-NORELAX %s
+# RUN: llvm-mc -filetype=obj -triple riscv64 -mattr=-relax < %s \
+# RUN:     | llvm-objdump -d - | FileCheck -check-prefix=RV64-NORELAX %s
+# RUN: llvm-mc -filetype=obj -triple riscv32 -mattr=+c,-relax < %s \
+# RUN:     | llvm-objdump -d - | FileCheck -check-prefix=RV32-C-EXT-NORELAX %s
+# RUN: llvm-mc -filetype=obj -triple riscv32 -mattr=-relax < %s \
+# RUN:     | llvm-objdump -d - | FileCheck -check-prefix=RV32-NORELAX %s
+
+# RUN: llvm-mc -filetype=obj -triple riscv64 -mattr=+c,+relax < %s \
+# RUN:     | llvm-objdump -d - | FileCheck -check-prefix=RV64-C-EXT-RELAX %s
+# RUN: llvm-mc -filetype=obj -triple riscv64 -mattr=+relax < %s \
+# RUN:     | llvm-objdump -d - | FileCheck -check-prefix=RV64-RELAX %s
+# RUN: llvm-mc -filetype=obj -triple riscv32 -mattr=+c,+relax < %s \
+# RUN:     | llvm-objdump -d - | FileCheck -check-prefix=RV32-C-EXT-RELAX %s
+# RUN: llvm-mc -filetype=obj -triple riscv32 -mattr=+relax < %s \
+# RUN:     | llvm-objdump -d - | FileCheck -check-prefix=RV32-RELAX %s
+
+#      RV64-C-EXT-NORELAX:  0: 01 00
+# RV64-C-EXT-NORELAX-NEXT:  2: 00 00
+# RV64-C-EXT-NORELAX-NEXT:  4: 00 00
+# RV64-C-EXT-NORELAX-NEXT:  6: 01 00
+# RV64-C-EXT-NORELAX-NEXT:  8: 2a 95
+
+#      RV64-NORELAX:  0: 01 00
+# RV64-NORELAX-NEXT:  2: 00 00
+# RV64-NORELAX-NEXT:  4: 00 00
+# RV64-NORELAX-NEXT:  6: 00 00
+# RV64-NORELAX-NEXT:  8: 33 05 a5 00
+
+# RV32-C-EXT-NORELAX:  0: 01 00
+# RV32-C-EXT-NORELAX-NEXT:  2: 00 00
+# RV32-C-EXT-NORELAX-NEXT:  4: 00 00
+# RV32-C-EXT-NORELAX-NEXT:  6: 01 00
+# RV32-C-EXT-NORELAX-NEXT:  8: 2a 95
+
+#      RV32-NORELAX:  0: 01 00
+# RV32-NORELAX-NEXT:  2: 00 00
+# RV32-NORELAX-NEXT:  4: 00 00
+# RV32-NORELAX-NEXT:  6: 00 00
+# RV32-NORELAX-NEXT:  8: 33 05 a5 00
+
+
+#      RV64-C-EXT-RELAX:  0: 01 00
+# RV64-C-EXT-RELAX-NEXT:  2: 00 00
+# RV64-C-EXT-RELAX-NEXT:  4: 00 13
+# RV64-C-EXT-RELAX-NEXT:  6: 00 00
+# RV64-C-EXT-RELAX-NEXT:  8: 00 01
+# RV64-C-EXT-RELAX-NEXT:  a: 00 2a
+# RV64-C-EXT-RELAX-NEXT:  c: 95
+
+
+#      RV64-RELAX:  0: 01 00
+# RV64-RELAX-NEXT:  2: 00 00
+# RV64-RELAX-NEXT:  4: 00 13
+# RV64-RELAX-NEXT:  6: 00 00
+# RV64-RELAX-NEXT:  8: 00 33
+# RV64-RELAX-NEXT:  a: 05 a5
+# RV64-RELAX-NEXT:  c: 00
+
+#      RV32-C-EXT-RELAX:  0: 01 00
+# RV32-C-EXT-RELAX-NEXT:  2: 00 00
+# RV32-C-EXT-RELAX-NEXT:  4: 00 13
+# RV32-C-EXT-RELAX-NEXT:  6: 00 00
+# RV32-C-EXT-RELAX-NEXT:  8: 00 01
+# RV32-C-EXT-RELAX-NEXT:  a: 00 2a
+# RV32-C-EXT-RELAX-NEXT:  c: 95
+
+
+#      RV32-RELAX:  0: 01 00
+# RV32-RELAX-NEXT:  2: 00 00
+# RV32-RELAX-NEXT:  4: 00 13
+# RV32-RELAX-NEXT:  6: 00 00
+# RV32-RELAX-NEXT:  8: 00 33
+# RV32-RELAX-NEXT:  a: 05 a5
+# RV32-RELAX-NEXT:  c: 00
+
+
+.byte 1
+.word 0
+.p2align 3
+add a0, a0, a0