diff --git a/providers/fips/build.info b/providers/fips/build.info
index 8d3c5e2049..2bfc58501e 100644
--- a/providers/fips/build.info
+++ b/providers/fips/build.info
@@ -1,2 +1,6 @@
-SOURCE[../fips]=fipsprov.c self_test.c self_test_kats.c
-INCLUDE[../fips]=../implementations/include ../common/include ../..
+# We include the provider implementation into ../libfips.a, so that all
+# platforms can resolve symbols in other members of that library.
+SOURCE[../libfips.a]=fipsprov.c self_test.c self_test_kats.c
+
+# It is necessary to have an explicit entry point
+SOURCE[../fips]=fips_entry.c
diff --git a/providers/fips/fips_entry.c b/providers/fips/fips_entry.c
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..c2c8d5de2c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/providers/fips/fips_entry.c
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright 2021 The OpenSSL Project Authors. All Rights Reserved.
+ *
+ * Licensed under the Apache License 2.0 (the "License").  You may not use
+ * this file except in compliance with the License.  You can obtain a copy
+ * in the file LICENSE in the source distribution or at
+ * https://www.openssl.org/source/license.html
+ */
+
+#include <openssl/core.h>
+
+OSSL_provider_init_fn OSSL_provider_init_int;
+int OSSL_provider_init(const OSSL_CORE_HANDLE *handle,
+                       const OSSL_DISPATCH *in,
+                       const OSSL_DISPATCH **out,
+                       void **provctx)
+{
+    return OSSL_provider_init_int(handle, in, out, provctx);
+}
diff --git a/providers/fips/fipsprov.c b/providers/fips/fipsprov.c
index c28995fc44..580eea574f 100644
--- a/providers/fips/fipsprov.c
+++ b/providers/fips/fipsprov.c
@@ -518,10 +518,26 @@ static const OSSL_DISPATCH intern_dispatch_table[] = {
     { 0, NULL }
 };
 
-int OSSL_provider_init(const OSSL_CORE_HANDLE *handle,
-                       const OSSL_DISPATCH *in,
-                       const OSSL_DISPATCH **out,
-                       void **provctx)
+/*
+ * On VMS, the provider init function name is expected to be uppercase,
+ * see the pragmas in <openssl/core.h>.  Let's do the same with this
+ * internal name.  This is how symbol names are treated by default
+ * by the compiler if nothing else is said, but since this is part
+ * of libfips, and we build our libraries with mixed case symbol names,
+ * we must switch back to this default explicitly here.
+ */
+#ifdef __VMS
+# pragma names save
+# pragma names uppercase,truncated
+#endif
+OSSL_provider_init_fn OSSL_provider_init_int;
+#ifdef __VMS
+# pragma names restore
+#endif
+int OSSL_provider_init_int(const OSSL_CORE_HANDLE *handle,
+                           const OSSL_DISPATCH *in,
+                           const OSSL_DISPATCH **out,
+                           void **provctx)
 {
     FIPS_GLOBAL *fgbl;
     OSSL_LIB_CTX *libctx = NULL;