diff --git a/xla/python/pjrt_ifrt/pjrt_client.cc b/xla/python/pjrt_ifrt/pjrt_client.cc
index 464cca7ac0834..488e43409cab0 100644
--- a/xla/python/pjrt_ifrt/pjrt_client.cc
+++ b/xla/python/pjrt_ifrt/pjrt_client.cc
@@ -675,11 +675,14 @@ AssembleStringArrayFromSingleDeviceStringArrays(
       return absl::InvalidArgumentError(
           "All single device arrays must be BasicStringArrays");
     }
-    if (!llvm::isa<SingleDeviceSharding>(basic_string_array->sharding())) {
-      return absl::InvalidArgumentError(absl::StrFormat(
-          "All single device arrays must have single device sharding. got: %s "
-          "for shard index: %d",
-          basic_string_array->sharding().DebugString(), i));
+
+    if (!llvm::isa<SingleDeviceSharding>(basic_string_array->sharding()) &&
+        (basic_string_array->sharding().devices()->size() != 1)) {
+      return absl::InvalidArgumentError(
+          absl::StrFormat("All single device arrays must have single device "
+                          "sharding. got: %s "
+                          "for shard index: %d",
+                          basic_string_array->sharding().DebugString(), i));
     }
 
     basic_string_array->buffers().OnReady(
diff --git a/xla/python/types.cc b/xla/python/types.cc
index 5f71a0121a7a5..4a184f0090351 100644
--- a/xla/python/types.cc
+++ b/xla/python/types.cc
@@ -378,6 +378,10 @@ absl::StatusOr<nb_dtype> IfrtDtypeToNbDtype(ifrt::DType dtype) {
 }
 
 absl::StatusOr<ifrt::DType> DtypeToIfRtDType(nb_dtype dtype) {
+  // String does not have a corresponding XLA primitive type.
+  if (dtype.kind() == 'T') {
+    return ifrt::DType(ifrt::DType::kString);
+  }
   TF_ASSIGN_OR_RETURN(auto primitive_type, DtypeToPrimitiveType(dtype));
   return ifrt::ToDType(primitive_type);
 }
diff --git a/xla/python/xla_client.py b/xla/python/xla_client.py
index b7341007d04cc..71c15643e4cfa 100644
--- a/xla/python/xla_client.py
+++ b/xla/python/xla_client.py
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@
 
 # Just an internal arbitrary increasing number to help with backward-compatible
 # changes. In JAX, reference this via jax._src.lib.xla_extension_version.
-_version = 314
+_version = 315
 
 # Version number for MLIR:Python components.
 mlir_api_version = 57