diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index ea97dd402..c35c12371 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 ### Changed
 
 - Chart: Reduce default etcd volume size to 50 GB.
+- Explicitly set Ignition user data storage type to S3 bucket objects for machine pools
 
 ## [2.5.0] - 2024-12-13
 
diff --git a/helm/cluster-aws/templates/_machine_pools.tpl b/helm/cluster-aws/templates/_machine_pools.tpl
index fa2b4d1a7..574c380e3 100644
--- a/helm/cluster-aws/templates/_machine_pools.tpl
+++ b/helm/cluster-aws/templates/_machine_pools.tpl
@@ -90,6 +90,7 @@ spec:
     minHealthyPercentage: {{ $value.minHealthyPercentage | default 90 }}
     maxHealthyPercentage: {{ $value.maxHealthyPercentage }}
   ignition:
+    storageType: ClusterObjectStore # store user data in S3 bucket
     version: "3.4"
   lifecycleHooks:
   - defaultResult: CONTINUE