diff --git a/src/compressed_tensors/quantization/lifecycle/initialize.py b/src/compressed_tensors/quantization/lifecycle/initialize.py
index 5955b5e7..49e7b1a9 100644
--- a/src/compressed_tensors/quantization/lifecycle/initialize.py
+++ b/src/compressed_tensors/quantization/lifecycle/initialize.py
@@ -172,9 +172,10 @@ def _initialize_scale_zero_point_observer(
             # (output_channels, 1)
             expected_shape = (weight_shape[0], 1)
         elif quantization_args.strategy == QuantizationStrategy.GROUP:
+            num_groups = weight_shape[1] // quantization_args.group_size
             expected_shape = (
                 weight_shape[0],
-                weight_shape[1] // quantization_args.group_size,
+                max(num_groups, 1)
             )
 
     scale_dtype = module.weight.dtype