diff --git a/clients/src/main/java/org/apache/kafka/clients/producer/RoundRobinPartitioner.java b/clients/src/main/java/org/apache/kafka/clients/producer/RoundRobinPartitioner.java
index c736756ab4231..149dea4443fc8 100644
--- a/clients/src/main/java/org/apache/kafka/clients/producer/RoundRobinPartitioner.java
+++ b/clients/src/main/java/org/apache/kafka/clients/producer/RoundRobinPartitioner.java
@@ -64,7 +64,11 @@ public int partition(String topic, Object key, byte[] keyBytes, Object value, by
     }
 
     private int nextValue(String topic) {
-        AtomicInteger counter = topicCounterMap.computeIfAbsent(topic, k -> new AtomicInteger(0));
+        AtomicInteger counter = topicCounterMap.get(topic);
+        if(counter == null) {
+            counter = new AtomicInteger(0);
+            AtomicInteger counter = topicCounterMap.putIfAbsent(topic, counter);
+        }
         return counter.getAndIncrement();
     }