--- a/cmake/external/onnxruntime_external_deps.cmake
+++ b/cmake/external/onnxruntime_external_deps.cmake
@@ -211,14 +211,7 @@
  set(ONNXRUNTIME_PROTOBUF_PATCH_COMMAND "")
 endif()
 
-#Protobuf depends on absl and utf8_range
-FetchContent_Declare(
-  Protobuf
-  URL ${DEP_URL_protobuf}
-  URL_HASH SHA1=${DEP_SHA1_protobuf}
-  PATCH_COMMAND ${ONNXRUNTIME_PROTOBUF_PATCH_COMMAND}
-  FIND_PACKAGE_ARGS 3.21.12 NAMES Protobuf
-)
+find_package(Protobuf REQUIRED)
 
 set(protobuf_BUILD_TESTS OFF CACHE BOOL "Build protobuf tests" FORCE)
 #TODO: we'd better to turn the following option off. However, it will cause
@@ -397,7 +390,7 @@
 # protobuf's cmake/utf8_range.cmake has the following line
 include_directories(${utf8_range_SOURCE_DIR})
 
-onnxruntime_fetchcontent_makeavailable(Protobuf nlohmann_json mp11 re2 GSL flatbuffers ${ONNXRUNTIME_CPUINFO_PROJ} ${ONNXRUNTIME_CLOG_PROJ})
+onnxruntime_fetchcontent_makeavailable(nlohmann_json mp11 re2 GSL flatbuffers ${ONNXRUNTIME_CPUINFO_PROJ} ${ONNXRUNTIME_CLOG_PROJ})
 if(NOT flatbuffers_FOUND)
   if(NOT TARGET flatbuffers::flatbuffers)
     add_library(flatbuffers::flatbuffers ALIAS flatbuffers)