diff --git a/hack/e2e/config.sh b/hack/e2e/config.sh
index b09e7cac28..ea83d30f9c 100644
--- a/hack/e2e/config.sh
+++ b/hack/e2e/config.sh
@@ -33,9 +33,8 @@ OUTPOST_ARN=${OUTPOST_ARN:-}
 OUTPOST_INSTANCE_TYPE=${OUTPOST_INSTANCE_TYPE:-${INSTANCE_TYPE}}
 
 # kops: must include patch version (e.g. 1.19.1)
-# eksctl: mustn't include patch version (e.g. 1.19)
 # NOTE: Keep KOPS at v1.29.x until ELB usage bug fixed
-K8S_VERSION_KOPS=${K8S_VERSION_KOPS:-1.29.6}
+K8S_VERSION_KOPS=${K8S_VERSION_KOPS:-1.31.1}
 K8S_VERSION_EKSCTL=${K8S_VERSION_EKSCTL:-1.31}
 
 EBS_INSTALL_SNAPSHOT=${EBS_INSTALL_SNAPSHOT:-"true"}
diff --git a/hack/e2e/kops/kops.sh b/hack/e2e/kops/kops.sh
index c76bd90841..883a79ce1e 100644
--- a/hack/e2e/kops/kops.sh
+++ b/hack/e2e/kops/kops.sh
@@ -19,6 +19,8 @@
 
 set -euo pipefail
 
+export KOPS_RUN_TOO_NEW_VERSION=true
+
 function kops_create_cluster() {
   CLUSTER_NAME=${1}
   KOPS_BIN=${2}
diff --git a/hack/prow-e2e.sh b/hack/prow-e2e.sh
index 9944b828cf..4d331e4dad 100755
--- a/hack/prow-e2e.sh
+++ b/hack/prow-e2e.sh
@@ -71,6 +71,8 @@ export CLUSTER_NAME="e2e-${BUILD_ID:-${RANDOM}}.k8s.local"
 export KOPS_BUCKET=${KOPS_BUCKET:-"k8s-kops-csi-shared-e2e"}
 # Always use us-west-2 in CI, no matter where the local client is
 export AWS_REGION=us-west-2
+# Allow attempting using newer versions of K8s before kops releases catch up
+export KOPS_RUN_TOO_NEW_VERSION=true
 
 make cluster/create &
 PIDS[1]=$!
diff --git a/hack/tools/install.sh b/hack/tools/install.sh
index 2cee9d96b2..9595bf9339 100755
--- a/hack/tools/install.sh
+++ b/hack/tools/install.sh
@@ -33,8 +33,8 @@ GOMPLATE_VERSION="v4.1.0"
 # https://github.com/helm/helm
 HELM_VERSION="v3.15.4"
 # https://github.com/kubernetes/kops
-# NOTE: Keep at v1.29.0 until ELB usage bug fixed
-KOPS_VERSION="v1.29.0"
+# NOTE: We pin kops to a commit instead of a release to support newer versions of k8s earlier
+KOPS_COMMIT="3a8da3d7fc1d632ef5ffe4a6ef7e5e9fc048e0c7"
 # https://pkg.go.dev/sigs.k8s.io/kubetest2?tab=versions
 KUBETEST2_VERSION="v0.0.0-20240703180642-53f3d216ad9f"
 # https://github.com/golang/mock
@@ -153,9 +153,11 @@ function install_helm() {
 }
 
 function install_kops() {
+  # Build from source so we can test latest Kubernetes version earlier.
   INSTALL_PATH="${1}"
 
-  install_binary "${INSTALL_PATH}" "https://github.com/kubernetes/kops/releases/download/${KOPS_VERSION}/kops-${OS}-${ARCH}" "kops"
+  # Lower max processes to avoid oom-killed
+  GOMAXPROCS=1 install_go "${INSTALL_PATH}" "k8s.io/kops/cmd/kops@${KOPS_COMMIT}"
 }
 
 function install_kubetest2() {