diff --git a/lib/bumblebee.ex b/lib/bumblebee.ex
index 07f1b8b8..6237dc61 100644
--- a/lib/bumblebee.ex
+++ b/lib/bumblebee.ex
@@ -568,6 +568,13 @@ defmodule Bumblebee do
 
     * `:params_filename` - the file with the model parameters to be loaded
 
+    * `:safetensors_reader` - a 1-arity function used to read `.safetensors`
+      parameter files. Receives the file path and must return a map from
+      tensor name to an `Nx.Tensor` or any term implementing
+      `Nx.LazyContainer`. Defaults to `&Safetensors.read!(&1, lazy: true)`.
+      Override to plug in a custom reader, for example one that
+      memory-maps the file for zero-copy loading
+
     * `:log_params_diff` - whether to log missing, mismatched and unused
       parameters. By default diff is logged only if some parameters
       cannot be loaded
@@ -617,6 +624,7 @@ defmodule Bumblebee do
         :architecture,
         :params_variant,
         :params_filename,
+        :safetensors_reader,
         :log_params_diff,
         :backend,
         :type
@@ -659,7 +667,7 @@ defmodule Bumblebee do
       filename
       |> String.replace_suffix(".index.json", "")
       |> Path.extname()
-      |> params_file_loader_fun()
+      |> params_file_loader_fun(opts)
 
     with {:ok, paths} <- download_params_files(repository, repo_files, filename, sharded?) do
       opts =
@@ -768,8 +776,11 @@ defmodule Bumblebee do
     end
   end
 
-  defp params_file_loader_fun(".safetensors"), do: &Safetensors.read!(&1, lazy: true)
-  defp params_file_loader_fun(_), do: &Bumblebee.Conversion.PyTorchLoader.load!/1
+  defp params_file_loader_fun(".safetensors", opts) do
+    opts[:safetensors_reader] || (&Safetensors.read!(&1, lazy: true))
+  end
+
+  defp params_file_loader_fun(_, _opts), do: &Bumblebee.Conversion.PyTorchLoader.load!/1
 
   @doc """
   Featurizes `input` with the given featurizer.
diff --git a/test/bumblebee_test.exs b/test/bumblebee_test.exs
index 765e9d82..2df4a4b3 100644
--- a/test/bumblebee_test.exs
+++ b/test/bumblebee_test.exs
@@ -84,5 +84,30 @@ defmodule BumblebeeTest do
       assert Nx.type(params["decoder.blocks.0.ffn.output"]["kernel"]) == {:f, 16}
       assert Nx.type(params["decoder.blocks.0.ffn.output"]["bias"]) == {:f, 16}
     end
+
+    test "uses :safetensors_reader to read .safetensors files" do
+      test_pid = self()
+
+      reader = fn path ->
+        send(test_pid, {:reader_called, path})
+        Safetensors.read!(path, lazy: true)
+      end
+
+      assert {:ok, %{params: params}} =
+               Bumblebee.load_model(
+                 {:hf, "bumblebee-testing/tiny-random-GPT2Model-safetensors-only"},
+                 safetensors_reader: reader
+               )
+
+      assert_received {:reader_called, path}
+      assert File.exists?(path)
+
+      assert {:ok, %{params: default_params}} =
+               Bumblebee.load_model(
+                 {:hf, "bumblebee-testing/tiny-random-GPT2Model-safetensors-only"}
+               )
+
+      assert Enum.sort(Map.keys(params.data)) == Enum.sort(Map.keys(default_params.data))
+    end
   end
 end