A bearingless induction motor is a multivariable, nonlinear and strong coupling object. To achieve its dynamic decoupling control with high performance and improve the system stability, a sliding mode variable structure (SMVS) control strategy based on inverse system decoupling is proposed. First, taking the stator current as the control variable, by means of inverse system method, the bearingless induction motor system is decoupled into four pseudolinear subsystems, including motor speed subsystem, rotor flux‐linkage subsystem and two radial displacement component subsystems. Then, according to the SMVS control theory, the regulator is designed for each subsystem. To overcome the chattering problem of the system, an exponential reaching law is introduced to the SMVS regulator; based on Lyapunov theory, system stability is analyzed. From the simulation experimental results, it is clear that the system has better dynamic decoupling control performance, a stronger ability to resist load disturbance and stronger robustness to the variation of motor parameters. © 2018 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.