diff --git a/pkg/drivers/qemu/qemu.go b/pkg/drivers/qemu/qemu.go
index 5d1569a4aa6a..018974d07f6e 100644
--- a/pkg/drivers/qemu/qemu.go
+++ b/pkg/drivers/qemu/qemu.go
@@ -42,6 +42,7 @@ import (
 
 	"k8s.io/klog/v2"
 	pkgdrivers "k8s.io/minikube/pkg/drivers"
+	"k8s.io/minikube/pkg/minikube/detect"
 	"k8s.io/minikube/pkg/minikube/exit"
 	"k8s.io/minikube/pkg/minikube/firewall"
 	"k8s.io/minikube/pkg/minikube/out"
@@ -412,14 +413,11 @@ func (d *Driver) Start() error {
 	}
 
 	// hardware acceleration is important, it increases performance by 10x
-	if runtime.GOOS == "darwin" {
-		// On macOS, enable the Hypervisor framework accelerator.
-		startCmd = append(startCmd,
-			"-accel", "hvf")
-	} else if _, err := os.Stat("/dev/kvm"); err == nil && runtime.GOOS == "linux" {
-		// On Linux, enable the Kernel Virtual Machine accelerator.
+	accel := hardwareAcceleration()
+	if accel != "" {
+		klog.Infof("Using %s for hardware acceleration", accel)
 		startCmd = append(startCmd,
-			"-accel", "kvm")
+			"-accel", accel)
 	}
 
 	startCmd = append(startCmd,
@@ -546,6 +544,21 @@ func (d *Driver) Start() error {
 	return WaitForTCPWithDelay(fmt.Sprintf("%s:%d", d.IPAddress, d.SSHPort), time.Second)
 }
 
+func hardwareAcceleration() string {
+	if detect.IsAmd64M1Emulation() {
+		return "tcg"
+	}
+	if runtime.GOOS == "darwin" {
+		// On macOS, enable the Hypervisor framework accelerator.
+		return "hvf"
+	}
+	if _, err := os.Stat("/dev/kvm"); err == nil && runtime.GOOS == "linux" {
+		// On Linux, enable the Kernel Virtual Machine accelerator.
+		return "kvm"
+	}
+	return ""
+}
+
 func isBootpdError(err error) bool {
 	if runtime.GOOS != "darwin" {
 		return false
diff --git a/pkg/minikube/registry/drvs/qemu2/qemu2.go b/pkg/minikube/registry/drvs/qemu2/qemu2.go
index 0e4fa2f8d4c4..4b848694abcc 100644
--- a/pkg/minikube/registry/drvs/qemu2/qemu2.go
+++ b/pkg/minikube/registry/drvs/qemu2/qemu2.go
@@ -31,6 +31,7 @@ import (
 	"k8s.io/minikube/pkg/drivers/qemu"
 
 	"k8s.io/minikube/pkg/minikube/config"
+	"k8s.io/minikube/pkg/minikube/detect"
 	"k8s.io/minikube/pkg/minikube/download"
 	"k8s.io/minikube/pkg/minikube/driver"
 	"k8s.io/minikube/pkg/minikube/localpath"
@@ -76,6 +77,9 @@ func qemuFirmwarePath(customPath string) (string, error) {
 	if runtime.GOOS == "windows" {
 		return "C:\\Program Files\\qemu\\share\\edk2-x86_64-code.fd", nil
 	}
+	if detect.IsAmd64M1Emulation() {
+		return "/opt/homebrew/opt/qemu/share/qemu/edk2-x86_64-code.fd", nil
+	}
 	arch := runtime.GOARCH
 	// For macOS, find the correct brew installation path for qemu firmware
 	if runtime.GOOS == "darwin" {