diff --git a/opentelemetry-sdk/CHANGELOG.md b/opentelemetry-sdk/CHANGELOG.md
index 8eb169cddc..cb9a9e7921 100644
--- a/opentelemetry-sdk/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/opentelemetry-sdk/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -47,7 +47,8 @@
 - **Breaking** Moved the following SDK sampling types from `opentelemetry::trace` to `opentelemetry_sdk::trace` [#3277][3277]:
   - `SamplingDecision`, `SamplingResult`
   - These types are SDK implementation details and should be imported from `opentelemetry_sdk::trace` instead.
-- Fix panics and exploding memory usage from large cardinality limit [#3290][3290]
+- `StreamBuilder::build()` now rejects `usize::MAX` as a cardinality limit
+  with a validation error.
 - Fix Histogram boundaries being ignored in the presence of views [#3312][3312]
 - `TracerProviderBuilder::with_sampler` allows to pass boxed instance of `ShouldSample` [#3313][3313]
 - Fix ObservableCounter and ObservableUpDownCounter now correctly report only data points from the current measurement cycle, removing stale attribute combinations that are no longer observed. [#3248][3248]
@@ -58,7 +59,6 @@
 
 [3227]: https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-rust/pull/3227
 [3277]: https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-rust/pull/3277
-[3290]: https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-rust/pull/3290
 [3312]: https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-rust/pull/3312
 [3248]: https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-rust/pull/3248
 [3262]: https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-rust/pull/3262
diff --git a/opentelemetry-sdk/src/metrics/instrument.rs b/opentelemetry-sdk/src/metrics/instrument.rs
index 54a10722b3..00788fea62 100644
--- a/opentelemetry-sdk/src/metrics/instrument.rs
+++ b/opentelemetry-sdk/src/metrics/instrument.rs
@@ -259,6 +259,11 @@ impl StreamBuilder {
             if limit == 0 {
                 return Err("Cardinality limit must be greater than 0".into());
             }
+            // Reject usize::MAX because the SDK's internal HashMap capacity
+            // is sized as `1 + cardinality_limit`, which would overflow.
+            if limit == usize::MAX {
+                return Err("Cardinality limit must be less than usize::MAX".into());
+            }
         }
 
         // Validate bucket boundaries if using ExplicitBucketHistogram
@@ -544,8 +549,24 @@ mod tests {
             "Expected cardinality limit validation error message"
         );
 
+        // Test usize::MAX (invalid — would overflow internal `1 + limit` capacity)
+        let builder = StreamBuilder::new()
+            .with_name("valid_name")
+            .with_cardinality_limit(usize::MAX);
+
+        let result = builder.build();
+        assert!(
+            result.is_err(),
+            "Expected error for usize::MAX cardinality limit"
+        );
+        assert_eq!(
+            result.err().unwrap().to_string(),
+            "Cardinality limit must be less than usize::MAX",
+            "Expected cardinality limit usize::MAX error message"
+        );
+
         // Test valid cardinality limits
-        let valid_limits = vec![1, 10, 100, 1000];
+        let valid_limits = vec![1, 10, 100, 1000, usize::MAX - 1];
         for limit in valid_limits {
             let builder = StreamBuilder::new()
                 .with_name("valid_name")
diff --git a/opentelemetry-sdk/src/metrics/internal/mod.rs b/opentelemetry-sdk/src/metrics/internal/mod.rs
index 5314bb36c1..6bb4900fdc 100644
--- a/opentelemetry-sdk/src/metrics/internal/mod.rs
+++ b/opentelemetry-sdk/src/metrics/internal/mod.rs
@@ -8,7 +8,6 @@ mod sum;
 use core::fmt;
 #[cfg(not(target_has_atomic = "64"))]
 use portable_atomic::{AtomicI64, AtomicU64};
-use std::cmp::min;
 use std::collections::{HashMap, HashSet};
 use std::ops::{Add, AddAssign, Sub};
 use std::sync::atomic::{AtomicBool, AtomicUsize, Ordering};
@@ -25,7 +24,6 @@ use opentelemetry::otel_debug;
 use opentelemetry::{otel_warn, KeyValue};
 
 use super::data::{AggregatedMetrics, MetricData};
-use super::pipeline::DEFAULT_CARDINALITY_LIMIT;
 
 // TODO Replace it with LazyLock once it is stable
 pub(crate) static STREAM_OVERFLOW_ATTRIBUTES: OnceLock<Vec<KeyValue>> = OnceLock::new();
@@ -113,9 +111,7 @@ where
 
     fn new(config: A::InitConfig, cardinality_limit: usize) -> Self {
         ValueMap {
-            trackers: RwLock::new(HashMap::with_capacity(
-                1 + min(DEFAULT_CARDINALITY_LIMIT, cardinality_limit),
-            )),
+            trackers: RwLock::new(HashMap::with_capacity(1 + cardinality_limit)),
             no_attribute_tracker: Arc::new(TrackerEntry::new(&config)),
             count: AtomicUsize::new(0),
             config,
@@ -833,14 +829,6 @@ mod tests {
         assert!(f64::abs(0.0 - value2) < 0.0001, "Incorrect second value");
     }
 
-    #[test]
-    fn large_cardinality_limit() {
-        // This is a regression test for panics that used to occur for large cardinality limits
-
-        // Should not panic
-        let _value_map = ValueMap::<Assign<i64>>::new((), usize::MAX);
-    }
-
     #[test]
     fn stale_entry_evicts_both_unsorted_and_sorted_keys() {
         // ValueMap stores two HashMap keys per attribute set: one for the insertion
diff --git a/opentelemetry-sdk/src/metrics/pipeline.rs b/opentelemetry-sdk/src/metrics/pipeline.rs
index cf08027462..b8e8ebdd3a 100644
--- a/opentelemetry-sdk/src/metrics/pipeline.rs
+++ b/opentelemetry-sdk/src/metrics/pipeline.rs
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ impl fmt::Debug for Pipeline {
 /// Single or multi-instrument callbacks
 type GenericCallback = Arc<dyn Fn() + Send + Sync>;
 
-pub(crate) const DEFAULT_CARDINALITY_LIMIT: usize = 2000;
+const DEFAULT_CARDINALITY_LIMIT: usize = 2000;
 
 #[derive(Default)]
 struct PipelineInner {