diff --git a/models/spring-ai-openai/src/main/java/org/springframework/ai/openai/api/OpenAiStreamFunctionCallingHelper.java b/models/spring-ai-openai/src/main/java/org/springframework/ai/openai/api/OpenAiStreamFunctionCallingHelper.java
index 5c4132077..6110cc7cf 100644
--- a/models/spring-ai-openai/src/main/java/org/springframework/ai/openai/api/OpenAiStreamFunctionCallingHelper.java
+++ b/models/spring-ai-openai/src/main/java/org/springframework/ai/openai/api/OpenAiStreamFunctionCallingHelper.java
@@ -63,8 +63,8 @@ public class OpenAiStreamFunctionCallingHelper {
 		ChunkChoice currentChoice0 = (CollectionUtils.isEmpty(current.choices()) ? null : current.choices().get(0));
 
 		ChunkChoice choice = merge(previousChoice0, currentChoice0);
-
-		return new ChatCompletionChunk(id, List.of(choice), created, model, systemFingerprint, object);
+		List<ChunkChoice> chunkChoices = choice == null ? List.of() : List.of(choice);
+		return new ChatCompletionChunk(id, chunkChoices, created, model, systemFingerprint, object);
 	}
 
 	private ChunkChoice merge(ChunkChoice previous, ChunkChoice current) {
@@ -198,4 +198,4 @@ public class OpenAiStreamFunctionCallingHelper {
 	}
 
 }
-// ---
\ No newline at end of file
+// ---