diff --git a/torchao/float8/float8_utils.py b/torchao/float8/float8_utils.py
index 1d6c69d174..868d4f52a6 100644
--- a/torchao/float8/float8_utils.py
+++ b/torchao/float8/float8_utils.py
@@ -42,7 +42,6 @@ def amax_to_scale(
         float8_dtype: The float8 dtype.
         orig_dtype: The original dtype of the tensor.
     """
-    scale = torch.empty_like(amax, dtype=torch.float32)
     if float8_dtype in FP8_TYPES:
         res = torch.finfo(float8_dtype).max / torch.clamp(amax, min=EPS)
     else:
@@ -53,8 +52,7 @@ def amax_to_scale(
     # to care about this for float32/bfloat16.
     if orig_dtype is torch.float16:
         res = torch.clamp(res, max=torch.finfo(torch.float16).max)
-    scale.copy_(res)
-    return scale
+    return res.to(torch.float32)
 
 
 @torch.no_grad()