diff --git a/internal/node/node_repositories.bzl b/internal/node/node_repositories.bzl
index 978ac1de..39a2ee34 100755
--- a/internal/node/node_repositories.bzl
+++ b/internal/node/node_repositories.bzl
@@ -242,6 +242,7 @@ If this list is empty, we won't download yarn at all.
         doc = "the specific version of Yarn to install",
         default = "1.19.1",
     ),
+    "_yarn_increase_mutex_timeout_patch": attr.label(default = "//internal/npm_install:yarn-increase-mutex-timeout.patch"),
 }
 
 BUILT_IN_NODE_PLATFORMS = [
@@ -384,6 +385,9 @@ def _download_yarn(repository_ctx):
         sha256 = sha256,
     ))
 
+    patch_path = repository_ctx.path(repository_ctx.attr._yarn_increase_mutex_timeout_patch)
+    repository_ctx.execute(["patch", "lib/cli.js", patch_path], working_directory = YARN_EXTRACT_DIR)
+
 def _prepare_node(repository_ctx):
     """Sets up BUILD files and shell wrappers for the versions of NodeJS, npm & yarn just set up.
 
diff --git a/internal/npm_install/yarn-increase-mutex-timeout.patch b/internal/npm_install/yarn-increase-mutex-timeout.patch
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..81f23563
--- /dev/null
+++ b/internal/npm_install/yarn-increase-mutex-timeout.patch
@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+See https://github.com/yarnpkg/yarn/issues/8960
+TL;DR - NodeJS 18 made `http` timeout connections that don't send headers after 90s
+But some installations can take much longer than that - so if we have another mutex blocked waiting for that install it will
+silently die with exit code 0. Bazel sees this as a success (ofc) then proceeds as if the install succeeded, then dies because
+obviously the install did not succeed (or even begin).
+
+diff --git a/lib/cli.js b/lib/cli.js
+--- a/lib/cli.js
++++ b/lib/cli.js
+@@ -88432,7 +88432,12 @@ var main = exports.main = function () {
+
+         function startServer() {
+           var clients = new (_set || _load_set()).default();
+-          var server = (_http || _load_http()).default.createServer(manager);
++          var server = (_http || _load_http()).default.createServer({
++            // https://github.com/yarnpkg/yarn/issues/8960
++            // this bumps that timeout to the default 5 minutes
++            headersTimeout: 300000,
++            requestTimeout: 300000,
++          }, manager);
+
+           // The server must not prevent us from exiting
+           server.unref();