diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index becdd9b0c..271a8f597 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -18,9 +18,24 @@ Remember to align the itemized text with the first line of an item within a list
 ## jaxlib 0.4.21
 
 * Changes
+  * In preparation for adding distributed CPU support, JAX now treats CPU
+    devices identically to GPU and TPU devices, that is:
+
+    * `jax.devices()` includes all devices present in a distributed job, even
+      those not local to the current process. `jax.local_devices()` still only
+      includes devices local to the current process, so if the change to
+      `jax.devices()` breaks you, you most likely want to use
+      `jax.local_devices()` instead.
+    * CPU devices now receive a globally unique ID number within a distributed
+      job; previously CPU devices would receive a process-local ID number.
+    * The `process_index` of each CPU device will now match any GPU or TPU
+      devices within the same process; previously the `process_index` of a CPU
+      device was always 0.
+
   * On NVIDIA GPU, JAX now prefers a Jacobi SVD solver for matrices up to
     1024x1024. The Jacobi solver appears faster than the non-Jacobi version.
 
+
 ## jax 0.4.20 (Nov 2, 2023)
 
 ## jaxlib 0.4.20 (Nov 2, 2023)
diff --git a/jax/_src/xla_bridge.py b/jax/_src/xla_bridge.py
index 0253cd067..3b147d41e 100644
--- a/jax/_src/xla_bridge.py
+++ b/jax/_src/xla_bridge.py
@@ -204,8 +204,20 @@ def register_backend_factory(name: str, factory: BackendFactory, *,
     factory, priority, fail_quietly, experimental)
 
 
+def make_cpu_client() -> xla_client.Client:
+  if xla_extension_version >= 216:
+    # TODO(phawkins): remove type: ignore after updating jaxlib version used for
+    # mypy checks.
+    return xla_client.make_cpu_client(  # type: ignore
+      distributed_client=distributed.global_state.client,
+      node_id=distributed.global_state.process_id,
+      num_nodes=distributed.global_state.num_processes,
+    )
+  return xla_client.make_cpu_client()
+
+
 register_backend_factory(
-    "cpu", xla_client.make_cpu_client, priority=0, fail_quietly=False
+    "cpu", make_cpu_client, priority=0, fail_quietly=False
 )