diff --git a/bindings/go/nvml/api.go b/bindings/go/nvml/api.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..52ab012
--- /dev/null
+++ b/bindings/go/nvml/api.go
@@ -0,0 +1,45 @@
+package nvml
+
+import (
+	"fmt"
+	"os"
+	"sync"
+)
+
+var (
+	nvmlInitCounter int
+	mux             sync.Mutex
+)
+
+func InitCounter() (cleanup func(), err error) {
+	mux.Lock()
+	if nvmlInitCounter < 0 {
+		count := fmt.Sprintf("%d", nvmlInitCounter)
+		err = fmt.Errorf("ShutdownCounter() is called %s times, before InitCounter()", count[1:])
+	}
+	if nvmlInitCounter == 0 {
+		err = Init()
+	}
+	nvmlInitCounter += 1
+	mux.Unlock()
+
+	return func() {
+		if err := ShutdownCounter(); err != nil {
+			fmt.Fprintf(os.Stderr, "Failed to shutdown DCGM with error: `%v`", err)
+		}
+	}, err
+}
+
+func ShutdownCounter() (err error) {
+	mux.Lock()
+	if nvmlInitCounter <= 0 {
+		err = fmt.Errorf("Init() needs to be called before Shutdown()")
+	}
+	if nvmlInitCounter == 1 {
+		err = Shutdown()
+	}
+	nvmlInitCounter -= 1
+	mux.Unlock()
+
+	return
+}
diff --git a/pkg/main.go b/pkg/main.go
index a796406..b6d2668 100644
--- a/pkg/main.go
+++ b/pkg/main.go
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@ import (
 	"time"
 
 	"github.com/NVIDIA/gpu-monitoring-tools/bindings/go/dcgm"
+	"github.com/NVIDIA/gpu-monitoring-tools/bindings/go/nvml"
 	"github.com/sirupsen/logrus"
 	"github.com/urfave/cli/v2"
 )
@@ -103,6 +104,13 @@ restart:
 	}
 	logrus.Info("DCGM successfully initialized!")
 
+	nvmlCleanup, err := nvml.InitCounter()
+	defer nvmlCleanup()
+	if err != nil {
+		logrus.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	logrus.Info("DCGM successfully initialized!")
+
 	_, err = dcgm.GetSupportedMetricGroups(0)
 	if err != nil {
 		config.CollectDCP = false