diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 4e582bae5e95..9cd68e14093c 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ mxnet_option(USE_MKL_IF_AVAILABLE "Use MKL if found" ON)
 mxnet_option(USE_MKLML_MKL        "Use MKLDNN variant of MKL (if MKL found)" ON IF USE_MKL_IF_AVAILABLE AND (NOT APPLE))
 mxnet_option(USE_MKLDNN           "Use MKLDNN variant of MKL (if MKL found)" ON IF USE_MKL_IF_AVAILABLE AND (NOT APPLE) AND (NOT MSVC) AND (CMAKE_HOST_SYSTEM_PROCESSOR STREQUAL "x86_64") AND (NOT CMAKE_CROSSCOMPILING))
 mxnet_option(USE_OPERATOR_TUNING  "Enable auto-tuning of operators" ON IF NOT MSVC)
-mxnet_option(USE_GPERFTOOLS       "Build with GPerfTools support (if found)" ON)
+mxnet_option(USE_GPERFTOOLS       "Build with GPerfTools support" OFF)
 mxnet_option(USE_JEMALLOC         "Build with Jemalloc support"   ON)
 mxnet_option(USE_PROFILER         "Build with Profiler support"   ON)
 mxnet_option(USE_DIST_KVSTORE     "Build with DIST_KVSTORE support" OFF)
diff --git a/make/config.mk b/make/config.mk
index f9ac4cf10048..d4431a97173d 100644
--- a/make/config.mk
+++ b/make/config.mk
@@ -183,7 +183,8 @@ USE_S3 = 0
 USE_OPERATOR_TUNING = 1
 
 # Use gperftools if found
-USE_GPERFTOOLS = 1
+# Disable because of #8968
+USE_GPERFTOOLS = 0
 
 # path to gperftools (tcmalloc) library in case of a non-standard installation
 USE_GPERFTOOLS_PATH =
diff --git a/make/crosscompile.jetson.mk b/make/crosscompile.jetson.mk
index 3db2b98847f3..f0c89d6239e6 100644
--- a/make/crosscompile.jetson.mk
+++ b/make/crosscompile.jetson.mk
@@ -166,7 +166,8 @@ USE_S3 = 0
 USE_OPERATOR_TUNING = 1
 
 # Use gperftools if found
-USE_GPERFTOOLS = 1
+# Disable because of #8968
+USE_GPERFTOOLS = 0
 
 # path to gperftools (tcmalloc) library in case of a non-standard installation
 USE_GPERFTOOLS_PATH =