diff --git a/keras/src/backend/tensorflow/rnn.py b/keras/src/backend/tensorflow/rnn.py
index 06d450a18838..e49598d020bd 100644
--- a/keras/src/backend/tensorflow/rnn.py
+++ b/keras/src/backend/tensorflow/rnn.py
@@ -2,6 +2,10 @@
 
 from keras.src import tree
 
+_activations = None
+
+_ops = None
+
 
 def rnn(
     step_function,
@@ -507,8 +511,7 @@ def _do_gru_arguments_support_cudnn(
     use_bias,
     reset_after,
 ):
-    from keras.src import activations
-    from keras.src import ops
+    activations, ops = _get_activations_and_ops()
 
     return (
         activation in (activations.tanh, tf.tanh, ops.tanh)
@@ -526,8 +529,7 @@ def _do_lstm_arguments_support_cudnn(
     unroll,
     use_bias,
 ):
-    from keras.src import activations
-    from keras.src import ops
+    activations, ops = _get_activations_and_ops()
 
     return (
         activation in (activations.tanh, tf.tanh, ops.tanh)
@@ -969,3 +971,12 @@ def _cudnn_lstm(
         outputs = tf.expand_dims(last_output, axis=0 if time_major else 1)
 
     return (last_output, outputs, [h, c])
+
+def _get_activations_and_ops():
+    global _activations, _ops
+    # Only import once per module lifetime; thread-safe since imports are idempotent in Python
+    if _activations is None or _ops is None:
+        from keras.src import activations, ops
+        _activations = activations
+        _ops = ops
+    return _activations, _ops