diff --git a/absl/container/internal/raw_hash_set.cc b/absl/container/internal/raw_hash_set.cc
index 687bcb8a4d2..58b8e424223 100644
--- a/absl/container/internal/raw_hash_set.cc
+++ b/absl/container/internal/raw_hash_set.cc
@@ -23,12 +23,6 @@ namespace absl {
 ABSL_NAMESPACE_BEGIN
 namespace container_internal {
 
-alignas(16) ABSL_CONST_INIT ABSL_DLL const ctrl_t kEmptyGroup[16] = {
-    ctrl_t::kSentinel, ctrl_t::kEmpty, ctrl_t::kEmpty, ctrl_t::kEmpty,
-    ctrl_t::kEmpty,    ctrl_t::kEmpty, ctrl_t::kEmpty, ctrl_t::kEmpty,
-    ctrl_t::kEmpty,    ctrl_t::kEmpty, ctrl_t::kEmpty, ctrl_t::kEmpty,
-    ctrl_t::kEmpty,    ctrl_t::kEmpty, ctrl_t::kEmpty, ctrl_t::kEmpty};
-
 constexpr size_t Group::kWidth;
 
 // Returns "random" seed.
diff --git a/absl/container/internal/raw_hash_set.h b/absl/container/internal/raw_hash_set.h
index 0daf722383c..beb5721dd2d 100644
--- a/absl/container/internal/raw_hash_set.h
+++ b/absl/container/internal/raw_hash_set.h
@@ -301,7 +301,12 @@ static_assert(ctrl_t::kDeleted == static_cast<ctrl_t>(-2),
 
 // A single block of empty control bytes for tables without any slots allocated.
 // This enables removing a branch in the hot path of find().
-ABSL_DLL extern const ctrl_t kEmptyGroup[16];
+alignas(16) ABSL_CONST_INIT ABSL_DLL constexpr ctrl_t kEmptyGroup[16] = {
+    ctrl_t::kSentinel, ctrl_t::kEmpty, ctrl_t::kEmpty, ctrl_t::kEmpty,
+    ctrl_t::kEmpty,    ctrl_t::kEmpty, ctrl_t::kEmpty, ctrl_t::kEmpty,
+    ctrl_t::kEmpty,    ctrl_t::kEmpty, ctrl_t::kEmpty, ctrl_t::kEmpty,
+    ctrl_t::kEmpty,    ctrl_t::kEmpty, ctrl_t::kEmpty, ctrl_t::kEmpty};
+
 inline ctrl_t* EmptyGroup() {
   return const_cast<ctrl_t*>(kEmptyGroup);
 }
diff --git a/absl/copts/AbseilConfigureCopts.cmake b/absl/copts/AbseilConfigureCopts.cmake
index 15d6c895f94..8a9153c0fd7 100644
--- a/absl/copts/AbseilConfigureCopts.cmake
+++ b/absl/copts/AbseilConfigureCopts.cmake
@@ -98,6 +98,9 @@ elseif(CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER_ID STREQUAL "MSVC")
   set(ABSL_DEFAULT_COPTS "${ABSL_MSVC_FLAGS}")
   set(ABSL_TEST_COPTS "${ABSL_MSVC_FLAGS};${ABSL_MSVC_TEST_FLAGS}")
   set(ABSL_DEFAULT_LINKOPTS "${ABSL_MSVC_LINKOPTS}")
+  # make extern constexpr work correctly on MSVC, see
+  # https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/cpp/extern-cpp#extern-constexpr-linkage
+  set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS "${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS} /Zc:externConstexpr")
 else()
   message(WARNING "Unknown compiler: ${CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER}.  Building with no default flags")
   set(ABSL_DEFAULT_COPTS "")