diff --git a/mlir/lib/Dialect/Linalg/IR/CMakeLists.txt b/mlir/lib/Dialect/Linalg/IR/CMakeLists.txt
--- a/mlir/lib/Dialect/Linalg/IR/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/mlir/lib/Dialect/Linalg/IR/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@
   MLIRIR
   MLIRParser
   MLIRSideEffectInterfaces
+  MLIRSparseTensor
   MLIRSCF
   MLIRMath
   MLIRMemRef
diff --git a/mlir/lib/Dialect/Linalg/IR/LinalgOps.cpp b/mlir/lib/Dialect/Linalg/IR/LinalgOps.cpp
--- a/mlir/lib/Dialect/Linalg/IR/LinalgOps.cpp
+++ b/mlir/lib/Dialect/Linalg/IR/LinalgOps.cpp
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@
 
 #include "mlir/Dialect/Arithmetic/Utils/Utils.h"
 #include "mlir/Dialect/SCF/SCF.h"
+#include "mlir/Dialect/SparseTensor/IR/SparseTensor.h"
 #include "mlir/Dialect/Utils/ReshapeOpsUtils.h"
 #include "mlir/Dialect/Utils/StaticValueUtils.h"
 #include "mlir/IR/AffineExprVisitor.h"
@@ -819,9 +820,18 @@
       Type resultType = genericOp->getResult(yieldVal.index()).getType();
       // The input can have a different type than the result, e.g. a dynamic
       // input dimension can be turned into a static output dimension.
-      if (returnedArg.getType() != resultType)
-        returnedArg = rewriter.create<tensor::CastOp>(genericOp.getLoc(),
-                                                      resultType, returnedArg);
+      Type returnType = returnedArg.getType();
+      if (returnType != resultType) {
+        // Distinguish between sparse conversion or dense tensor casting.
+        // TODO: unify the two ops?
+        if (sparse_tensor::getSparseTensorEncoding(returnType) ||
+            sparse_tensor::getSparseTensorEncoding(resultType))
+          returnedArg = rewriter.create<sparse_tensor::ConvertOp>(
+              genericOp.getLoc(), resultType, returnedArg);
+        else
+          returnedArg = rewriter.create<tensor::CastOp>(
+              genericOp.getLoc(), resultType, returnedArg);
+      }
       returnedArgs.push_back(returnedArg);
     }
 
diff --git a/mlir/lib/Dialect/Linalg/Transforms/CMakeLists.txt b/mlir/lib/Dialect/Linalg/Transforms/CMakeLists.txt
--- a/mlir/lib/Dialect/Linalg/Transforms/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/mlir/lib/Dialect/Linalg/Transforms/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -50,6 +50,7 @@
   MLIRSCFTransforms
   MLIRSCFUtils
   MLIRPass
+  MLIRSparseTensor
   MLIRStandard
   MLIRStandardOpsTransforms
   MLIRStandardToLLVM
diff --git a/mlir/lib/Dialect/Linalg/Transforms/ElementwiseOpFusion.cpp b/mlir/lib/Dialect/Linalg/Transforms/ElementwiseOpFusion.cpp
--- a/mlir/lib/Dialect/Linalg/Transforms/ElementwiseOpFusion.cpp
+++ b/mlir/lib/Dialect/Linalg/Transforms/ElementwiseOpFusion.cpp
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@
 #include "mlir/Dialect/Linalg/Passes.h"
 #include "mlir/Dialect/Linalg/Transforms/Transforms.h"
 #include "mlir/Dialect/Linalg/Utils/Utils.h"
+#include "mlir/Dialect/SparseTensor/IR/SparseTensor.h"
 #include "mlir/IR/AffineExpr.h"
 #include "mlir/IR/AffineMap.h"
 #include "mlir/IR/Matchers.h"
@@ -2184,6 +2185,10 @@
         if (!operandType)
           continue;
 
+        // If outs is sparse, leave it to the sparse compiler.
+        if (sparse_tensor::getSparseTensorEncoding(operandVal.getType()))
+          continue;
+
         // If outs is already an `init_tensor` operation, nothing to do.
         auto definingOp = operandVal.getDefiningOp<InitTensorOp>();
         if (definingOp)
@@ -2213,7 +2218,7 @@
 } // namespace
 
 //===---------------------------------------------------------------------===//
-// Methods that add patterns descrined in this file to a pattern list.
+// Methods that add patterns described in this file to a pattern list.
 //===---------------------------------------------------------------------===//
 
 void mlir::linalg::populateFoldReshapeOpsByLinearizationPatterns(
diff --git a/mlir/lib/Dialect/SparseTensor/Pipelines/SparseTensorPipelines.cpp b/mlir/lib/Dialect/SparseTensor/Pipelines/SparseTensorPipelines.cpp
--- a/mlir/lib/Dialect/SparseTensor/Pipelines/SparseTensorPipelines.cpp
+++ b/mlir/lib/Dialect/SparseTensor/Pipelines/SparseTensorPipelines.cpp
@@ -29,6 +29,8 @@
 void mlir::sparse_tensor::buildSparseCompiler(
     OpPassManager &pm, const SparseCompilerOptions &options) {
   // TODO(wrengr): ensure the original `pm` is for ModuleOp
+  pm.addNestedPass<FuncOp>(createLinalgGeneralizationPass());
+  pm.addPass(createLinalgElementwiseOpFusionPass());
   pm.addPass(createSparsificationPass(options.sparsificationOptions()));
   pm.addPass(createSparseTensorConversionPass());
   pm.addNestedPass<FuncOp>(createLinalgBufferizePass());
diff --git a/mlir/test/Integration/Dialect/SparseTensor/CPU/dense_output.mlir b/mlir/test/Integration/Dialect/SparseTensor/CPU/dense_output.mlir
--- a/mlir/test/Integration/Dialect/SparseTensor/CPU/dense_output.mlir
+++ b/mlir/test/Integration/Dialect/SparseTensor/CPU/dense_output.mlir
@@ -1,6 +1,5 @@
 // RUN: mlir-opt %s --sparse-compiler | \
 // RUN: TENSOR0="%mlir_integration_test_dir/data/test.mtx" \
-// RUN: TENSOR1="%mlir_integration_test_dir/data/zero.mtx" \
 // RUN: mlir-cpu-runner \
 // RUN:  -e entry -entry-point-result=void  \
 // RUN:  -shared-libs=%mlir_integration_test_dir/libmlir_c_runner_utils%shlibext | \
@@ -40,15 +39,17 @@
 // library.
 module {
   //
-  // A kernel that assigns elements from A to an initially zero X.
+  // A kernel that assigns elements from A to X.
   //
-  func @dense_output(%arga: tensor<?x?xf64, #SparseMatrix>,
-                     %argx: tensor<?x?xf64, #DenseMatrix>
-		     {linalg.inplaceable = true})
-       -> tensor<?x?xf64, #DenseMatrix> {
+  func @dense_output(%arga: tensor<?x?xf64, #SparseMatrix>) -> tensor<?x?xf64, #DenseMatrix> {
+    %c0 = arith.constant 0 : index
+    %c1 = arith.constant 1 : index
+    %d0 = tensor.dim %arga, %c0 : tensor<?x?xf64, #SparseMatrix>
+    %d1 = tensor.dim %arga, %c1 : tensor<?x?xf64, #SparseMatrix>
+    %init = sparse_tensor.init [%d0, %d1] : tensor<?x?xf64, #DenseMatrix>
     %0 = linalg.generic #trait_assign
        ins(%arga: tensor<?x?xf64, #SparseMatrix>)
-      outs(%argx: tensor<?x?xf64, #DenseMatrix>) {
+      outs(%init: tensor<?x?xf64, #DenseMatrix>) {
       ^bb(%a: f64, %x: f64):
         linalg.yield %a : f64
     } -> tensor<?x?xf64, #DenseMatrix>
@@ -70,15 +71,9 @@
     %a = sparse_tensor.new %fileName
       : !Filename to tensor<?x?xf64, #SparseMatrix>
 
-    // Initialize all-dense annotated "sparse" matrix to all zeros.
-    %fileZero = call @getTensorFilename(%c1) : (index) -> (!Filename)
-    %x = sparse_tensor.new %fileZero
-      : !Filename to tensor<?x?xf64, #DenseMatrix>
-
     // Call the kernel.
-    %0 = call @dense_output(%a, %x)
-      : (tensor<?x?xf64, #SparseMatrix>,
-         tensor<?x?xf64, #DenseMatrix>) -> tensor<?x?xf64, #DenseMatrix>
+    %0 = call @dense_output(%a)
+      : (tensor<?x?xf64, #SparseMatrix>) -> tensor<?x?xf64, #DenseMatrix>
 
     //
     // Print the linearized 5x5 result for verification.
@@ -92,7 +87,7 @@
 
     // Release the resources.
     sparse_tensor.release %a : tensor<?x?xf64, #SparseMatrix>
-    sparse_tensor.release %x : tensor<?x?xf64, #DenseMatrix>
+    sparse_tensor.release %0 : tensor<?x?xf64, #DenseMatrix>
 
     return
   }
diff --git a/mlir/test/Integration/Dialect/SparseTensor/CPU/sparse_filter_conv2d.mlir b/mlir/test/Integration/Dialect/SparseTensor/CPU/sparse_filter_conv2d.mlir
--- a/mlir/test/Integration/Dialect/SparseTensor/CPU/sparse_filter_conv2d.mlir
+++ b/mlir/test/Integration/Dialect/SparseTensor/CPU/sparse_filter_conv2d.mlir
@@ -1,18 +1,12 @@
-// RUN: mlir-opt %s \
-// RUN:   --linalg-generalize-named-ops --linalg-fuse-elementwise-ops \
-// RUN:   --sparse-compiler | \
-// RUN: mlir-cpu-runner \
-// RUN:  -e entry -entry-point-result=void  \
+// RUN: mlir-opt %s --sparse-compiler | \
+// RUN: mlir-cpu-runner -e entry -entry-point-result=void \
 // RUN:  -shared-libs=%mlir_integration_test_dir/libmlir_c_runner_utils%shlibext | \
 // RUN: FileCheck %s
 //
 // Do the same run, but now with SIMDization as well. This should not change the outcome.
 //
-// RUN: mlir-opt %s \
-// RUN:   --linalg-generalize-named-ops --linalg-fuse-elementwise-ops \
-// RUN:   --sparse-compiler="vectorization-strategy=2 vl=2" | \
-// RUN: mlir-cpu-runner \
-// RUN:  -e entry -entry-point-result=void  \
+// RUN: mlir-opt %s --sparse-compiler="vectorization-strategy=2 vl=2" | \
+// RUN: mlir-cpu-runner -e entry -entry-point-result=void \
 // RUN:  -shared-libs=%mlir_integration_test_dir/libmlir_c_runner_utils%shlibext | \
 // RUN: FileCheck %s
 
diff --git a/mlir/test/Integration/Dialect/SparseTensor/CPU/sparse_matmul.mlir b/mlir/test/Integration/Dialect/SparseTensor/CPU/sparse_matmul.mlir
--- a/mlir/test/Integration/Dialect/SparseTensor/CPU/sparse_matmul.mlir
+++ b/mlir/test/Integration/Dialect/SparseTensor/CPU/sparse_matmul.mlir
@@ -1,11 +1,7 @@
-// RUN: mlir-opt %s \
-// RUN:   --linalg-generalize-named-ops --linalg-fuse-elementwise-ops \
-// RUN:   --sparse-compiler | \
-// RUN: mlir-cpu-runner \
-// RUN:  -e entry -entry-point-result=void  \
+// RUN: mlir-opt %s --sparse-compiler | \
+// RUN: mlir-cpu-runner -e entry -entry-point-result=void \
 // RUN:  -shared-libs=%mlir_integration_test_dir/libmlir_c_runner_utils%shlibext | \
 // RUN: FileCheck %s
-//
 
 #CSR = #sparse_tensor.encoding<{
   dimLevelType = [ "dense", "compressed" ],
diff --git a/mlir/test/Integration/Dialect/SparseTensor/CPU/sparse_quantized_matmul.mlir b/mlir/test/Integration/Dialect/SparseTensor/CPU/sparse_quantized_matmul.mlir
--- a/mlir/test/Integration/Dialect/SparseTensor/CPU/sparse_quantized_matmul.mlir
+++ b/mlir/test/Integration/Dialect/SparseTensor/CPU/sparse_quantized_matmul.mlir
@@ -1,18 +1,12 @@
-// RUN: mlir-opt %s \
-// RUN:   --linalg-generalize-named-ops --linalg-fuse-elementwise-ops \
-// RUN:   --sparse-compiler | \
-// RUN: mlir-cpu-runner \
-// RUN:  -e entry -entry-point-result=void  \
+// RUN: mlir-opt %s --sparse-compiler | \
+// RUN: mlir-cpu-runner -e entry -entry-point-result=void \
 // RUN:  -shared-libs=%mlir_integration_test_dir/libmlir_c_runner_utils%shlibext | \
 // RUN: FileCheck %s
 //
 // Do the same run, but now with SIMDization as well. This should not change the outcome.
 //
-// RUN: mlir-opt %s \
-// RUN:   --linalg-generalize-named-ops --linalg-fuse-elementwise-ops \
-// RUN:   --sparse-compiler="vectorization-strategy=2 vl=2" | \
-// RUN: mlir-cpu-runner \
-// RUN:  -e entry -entry-point-result=void  \
+// RUN: mlir-opt %s --sparse-compiler="vectorization-strategy=2 vl=2" | \
+// RUN: mlir-cpu-runner -e entry -entry-point-result=void \
 // RUN:  -shared-libs=%mlir_integration_test_dir/libmlir_c_runner_utils%shlibext | \
 // RUN: FileCheck %s
 
diff --git a/mlir/test/Integration/Dialect/SparseTensor/CPU/sparse_reductions.mlir b/mlir/test/Integration/Dialect/SparseTensor/CPU/sparse_reductions.mlir
--- a/mlir/test/Integration/Dialect/SparseTensor/CPU/sparse_reductions.mlir
+++ b/mlir/test/Integration/Dialect/SparseTensor/CPU/sparse_reductions.mlir
@@ -1,16 +1,12 @@
 // RUN: mlir-opt %s --sparse-compiler | \
-// RUN: mlir-cpu-runner \
-// RUN:  -e entry -entry-point-result=void  \
+// RUN: mlir-cpu-runner -e entry -entry-point-result=void \
 // RUN:  -shared-libs=%mlir_integration_test_dir/libmlir_c_runner_utils%shlibext | \
 // RUN: FileCheck %s
 //
 // Do the same run, but now with SIMDization as well. This should not change the outcome.
 //
-// RUN: mlir-opt %s \
-// RUN:   --linalg-generalize-named-ops --linalg-fuse-elementwise-ops \
-// RUN:   --sparse-compiler="vectorization-strategy=2 vl=8" | \
-// RUN: mlir-cpu-runner \
-// RUN:  -e entry -entry-point-result=void  \
+// RUN: mlir-opt %s --sparse-compiler="vectorization-strategy=2 vl=8" | \
+// RUN: mlir-cpu-runner -e entry -entry-point-result=void \
 // RUN:  -shared-libs=%mlir_integration_test_dir/libmlir_c_runner_utils%shlibext | \
 // RUN: FileCheck %s
 
diff --git a/mlir/test/Integration/Dialect/SparseTensor/CPU/sparse_sampled_mm_fusion.mlir b/mlir/test/Integration/Dialect/SparseTensor/CPU/sparse_sampled_mm_fusion.mlir
--- a/mlir/test/Integration/Dialect/SparseTensor/CPU/sparse_sampled_mm_fusion.mlir
+++ b/mlir/test/Integration/Dialect/SparseTensor/CPU/sparse_sampled_mm_fusion.mlir
@@ -1,18 +1,12 @@
-// RUN: mlir-opt %s \
-// RUN:   --linalg-generalize-named-ops --linalg-fuse-elementwise-ops \
-// RUN:   --sparse-compiler | \
-// RUN: mlir-cpu-runner \
-// RUN:  -e entry -entry-point-result=void  \
+// RUN: mlir-opt %s --sparse-compiler | \
+// RUN: mlir-cpu-runner -e entry -entry-point-result=void \
 // RUN:  -shared-libs=%mlir_integration_test_dir/libmlir_c_runner_utils%shlibext | \
 // RUN: FileCheck %s
 //
 // Do the same run, but now with SIMDization as well. This should not change the outcome.
 //
-// RUN: mlir-opt %s \
-// RUN:   --linalg-generalize-named-ops --linalg-fuse-elementwise-ops \
-// RUN:   --sparse-compiler="vectorization-strategy=2 vl=8" | \
-// RUN: mlir-cpu-runner \
-// RUN:  -e entry -entry-point-result=void  \
+// RUN: mlir-opt %s -sparse-compiler="vectorization-strategy=2 vl=8" | \
+// RUN: mlir-cpu-runner -e entry -entry-point-result=void \
 // RUN:  -shared-libs=%mlir_integration_test_dir/libmlir_c_runner_utils%shlibext | \
 // RUN: FileCheck %s
 
diff --git a/mlir/test/Integration/Dialect/SparseTensor/python/test_SpMM.py b/mlir/test/Integration/Dialect/SparseTensor/python/test_SpMM.py
--- a/mlir/test/Integration/Dialect/SparseTensor/python/test_SpMM.py
+++ b/mlir/test/Integration/Dialect/SparseTensor/python/test_SpMM.py
@@ -113,7 +113,6 @@
 
   def __init__(self, options: str):
     pipeline = (
-        f'builtin.func(linalg-generalize-named-ops,linalg-fuse-elementwise-ops),'
         f'sparse-compiler{{{options} reassociate-fp-reductions=1 enable-index-optimizations=1}}')
     self.pipeline = pipeline
 
diff --git a/mlir/test/Integration/Dialect/SparseTensor/python/test_output.py b/mlir/test/Integration/Dialect/SparseTensor/python/test_output.py
--- a/mlir/test/Integration/Dialect/SparseTensor/python/test_output.py
+++ b/mlir/test/Integration/Dialect/SparseTensor/python/test_output.py
@@ -73,7 +73,6 @@
 
   def __init__(self):
     pipeline = (
-        f'builtin.func(linalg-generalize-named-ops,linalg-fuse-elementwise-ops),'
         f'sparse-compiler{{reassociate-fp-reductions=1 enable-index-optimizations=1}}')
     self.pipeline = pipeline
 
diff --git a/mlir/test/Integration/Dialect/SparseTensor/python/test_stress.py b/mlir/test/Integration/Dialect/SparseTensor/python/test_stress.py
--- a/mlir/test/Integration/Dialect/SparseTensor/python/test_stress.py
+++ b/mlir/test/Integration/Dialect/SparseTensor/python/test_stress.py
@@ -171,7 +171,6 @@
   def __init__(self, sparsification_options: str, support_lib: str):
     self._support_lib = support_lib
     self._pipeline = (
-        f'builtin.func(linalg-generalize-named-ops,linalg-fuse-elementwise-ops),'
         f'sparse-compiler{{{sparsification_options} reassociate-fp-reductions=1 enable-index-optimizations=1}}')
     # Must be in the scope of a `with ir.Context():`
     self._passmanager = PassManager.parse(self._pipeline)
diff --git a/utils/bazel/llvm-project-overlay/mlir/BUILD.bazel b/utils/bazel/llvm-project-overlay/mlir/BUILD.bazel
--- a/utils/bazel/llvm-project-overlay/mlir/BUILD.bazel
+++ b/utils/bazel/llvm-project-overlay/mlir/BUILD.bazel
@@ -6997,6 +6997,7 @@
         ":Parser",
         ":SCFDialect",
         ":SideEffectInterfaces",
+        ":SparseTensor",
         ":StandardOps",
         ":Support",
         ":TensorDialect",
@@ -7083,6 +7084,7 @@
         ":SCFDialect",
         ":SCFTransforms",
         ":SCFUtils",
+        ":SparseTensor",
         ":StandardOps",
         ":StandardOpsTransforms",
         ":Support",