diff --git a/pkg/asset/machines/clusterapi.go b/pkg/asset/machines/clusterapi.go
index 39613ba859b..26c1475ae40 100644
--- a/pkg/asset/machines/clusterapi.go
+++ b/pkg/asset/machines/clusterapi.go
@@ -351,6 +351,21 @@ func (c *ClusterAPI) Generate(ctx context.Context, dependencies asset.Parents) e
 			PreferGo: true,
 		}
 
+		/* We don't have a good way to determine if an install is UPI or IPI
+		   Previously we were able to just say if there are no VIPs defined its UPI.
+		   It isn't documented _but_ you can set VIPs in a UPI scenario and the assisted installer
+		   exploits this. For our customers that are using UPI though there might be scenarios
+		   where the network is unavailable (probably related to NSX-T). To work around this issue
+		   as port group name is not required we are going to skip any network gathering functions in capi
+		   manifest creation.
+		*/
+
+		// if isVipDefined is true then this is most likely IPI perform network checks
+		isVipDefined := false
+		if len(platform.APIVIPs) >= 1 || len(platform.IngressVIPs) >= 1 {
+			isVipDefined = true
+		}
+
 		for _, v := range platform.VCenters {
 			// Defense against potential issues with assisted installer
 			// If the installer is unable to resolve vCenter there is a good possibility
@@ -372,17 +387,19 @@ func (c *ClusterAPI) Generate(ctx context.Context, dependencies asset.Parents) e
 			ctx, cancel = context.WithTimeout(ctx, 60*time.Second)
 			defer cancel()
 
-			err = installConfig.VSphere.Networks(ctx, v, platform.FailureDomains)
-			if err != nil {
-				// If we are receiving an error as a Soap Fault this is caused by
-				// incorrect credentials and in the scenario of assisted installer
-				// the credentials are never valid. Since vCenter hostname is
-				// incorrect as well we shouldn't get this far.
-				if soap.IsSoapFault(err) {
-					logrus.Warn("authentication failure to vCenter, Cluster API machine manifests not created, cluster may not install")
-					return nil
+			if isVipDefined {
+				err = installConfig.VSphere.Networks(ctx, v, platform.FailureDomains)
+				if err != nil {
+					// If we are receiving an error as a Soap Fault this is caused by
+					// incorrect credentials and in the scenario of assisted installer
+					// the credentials are never valid. Since vCenter hostname is
+					// incorrect as well we shouldn't get this far.
+					if soap.IsSoapFault(err) {
+						logrus.Warn("authentication failure to vCenter, Cluster API machine manifests not created, cluster may not install")
+						return nil
+					}
+					return err
 				}
-				return err
 			}
 		}
 
diff --git a/pkg/asset/machines/vsphere/capimachines.go b/pkg/asset/machines/vsphere/capimachines.go
index 6ca0aa83342..f2b5a72c047 100644
--- a/pkg/asset/machines/vsphere/capimachines.go
+++ b/pkg/asset/machines/vsphere/capimachines.go
@@ -82,6 +82,21 @@ func GenerateMachines(ctx context.Context, clusterID string, config *types.Insta
 	result := make([]*asset.RuntimeFile, 0, len(machines))
 	staticIP := false
 
+	/* We don't have a good way to determine if an install is UPI or IPI
+	   Previously we were able to just say if there are no VIPs defined its UPI.
+	   It isn't documented _but_ you can set VIPs in a UPI scenario and the assisted installer
+	   exploits this. For our customers that are using UPI though there might be scenarios
+	   where the network is unavailable (probably related to NSX-T). To work around this issue
+	   as port group name is not required we are going to skip any network gathering functions in capi
+	   manifest creation.
+	*/
+
+	// if isVipDefined is true then this is most likely IPI perform network checks
+	isVipDefined := false
+	if len(config.VSphere.APIVIPs) >= 1 || len(config.VSphere.IngressVIPs) >= 1 {
+		isVipDefined = true
+	}
+
 	for mIndex, machine := range machines {
 		providerSpec, ok := machine.Spec.ProviderSpec.Value.Object.(*machinev1.VSphereMachineProviderSpec)
 		if !ok {
@@ -99,9 +114,12 @@ func GenerateMachines(ctx context.Context, clusterID string, config *types.Insta
 
 		capvNetworkDevices := []capv.NetworkDeviceSpec{}
 		for _, networkDevice := range providerSpec.Network.Devices {
-			networkName, err := getNetworkInventoryPath(vcenterContext, networkDevice.NetworkName, providerSpec)
-			if err != nil {
-				return nil, fmt.Errorf("unable to get network inventory path: %w", err)
+			networkName := ""
+			if isVipDefined {
+				networkName, err = getNetworkInventoryPath(vcenterContext, networkDevice.NetworkName, providerSpec)
+				if err != nil {
+					return nil, fmt.Errorf("unable to get network inventory path: %w", err)
+				}
 			}
 			deviceSpec := capv.NetworkDeviceSpec{
 				NetworkName: networkName,