diff --git a/src/coreclr/nativeaot/System.Private.CoreLib/src/System/Activator.NativeAot.cs b/src/coreclr/nativeaot/System.Private.CoreLib/src/System/Activator.NativeAot.cs
index a3b69bf6f52f69..ab710ed580453f 100644
--- a/src/coreclr/nativeaot/System.Private.CoreLib/src/System/Activator.NativeAot.cs
+++ b/src/coreclr/nativeaot/System.Private.CoreLib/src/System/Activator.NativeAot.cs
@@ -49,7 +49,7 @@ public static partial class Activator
             try
             {
                 // Call the default constructor on the allocated instance.
-                if (RuntimeHelpers.IsReference<T>())
+                if (!typeof(T).IsValueType)
                 {
                     // Grab a pointer to the optimized allocator for the type and call it.
                     IntPtr allocator = AllocatorOf<T>();
diff --git a/src/coreclr/nativeaot/System.Private.CoreLib/src/System/Runtime/CompilerServices/RuntimeHelpers.NativeAot.cs b/src/coreclr/nativeaot/System.Private.CoreLib/src/System/Runtime/CompilerServices/RuntimeHelpers.NativeAot.cs
index 11025b83e0f706..2981b35f520734 100644
--- a/src/coreclr/nativeaot/System.Private.CoreLib/src/System/Runtime/CompilerServices/RuntimeHelpers.NativeAot.cs
+++ b/src/coreclr/nativeaot/System.Private.CoreLib/src/System/Runtime/CompilerServices/RuntimeHelpers.NativeAot.cs
@@ -179,12 +179,6 @@ public static unsafe bool TryEnsureSufficientExecutionStack()
             return (t_sufficientStackLimit = limit);
         }
 
-        [Intrinsic]
-        internal static unsafe bool IsReference<T>()
-        {
-            return !MethodTable.Of<T>()->IsValueType;
-        }
-
         [Intrinsic]
         [MethodImpl(MethodImplOptions.AggressiveInlining)]
         internal static bool IsBitwiseEquatable<T>()
diff --git a/src/coreclr/tools/Common/TypeSystem/IL/Stubs/RuntimeHelpersIntrinsics.cs b/src/coreclr/tools/Common/TypeSystem/IL/Stubs/RuntimeHelpersIntrinsics.cs
index ebfdf6308fefd5..ad0670d36f7e94 100644
--- a/src/coreclr/tools/Common/TypeSystem/IL/Stubs/RuntimeHelpersIntrinsics.cs
+++ b/src/coreclr/tools/Common/TypeSystem/IL/Stubs/RuntimeHelpersIntrinsics.cs
@@ -30,11 +30,7 @@ public static MethodIL EmitIL(MethodDesc method)
                 return null;
 
             bool result;
-            if (methodName == "IsReference")
-            {
-                result = elementType.IsGCPointer;
-            }
-            else if (methodName == "IsBitwiseEquatable")
+            if (methodName == "IsBitwiseEquatable")
             {
                 // Ideally we could detect automatically whether a type is trivially equatable
                 // (i.e., its operator == could be implemented via memcmp). But for now we'll