diff --git a/drivers/i2c/busses/i2c-designware-core.c b/drivers/i2c/busses/i2c-designware-core.c
index 4255eaab96d1..99b54be6ba73 100644
--- a/drivers/i2c/busses/i2c-designware-core.c
+++ b/drivers/i2c/busses/i2c-designware-core.c
@@ -881,9 +881,17 @@ int i2c_dw_probe(struct dw_i2c_dev *dev)
 		return r;
 	}
 
+	/*
+	 * Increment PM usage count during adapter registration in order to
+	 * avoid possible spurious runtime suspend when adapter device is
+	 * registered to the device core and immediate resume in case bus has
+	 * registered I2C slaves that do I2C transfers in their probe.
+	 */
+	pm_runtime_get_noresume(dev->dev);
 	r = i2c_add_numbered_adapter(adap);
 	if (r)
 		dev_err(dev->dev, "failure adding adapter: %d\n", r);
+	pm_runtime_put_noidle(dev->dev);
 
 	return r;
 }