diff --git a/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/internal/BaseSessionStateBuilder.scala b/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/internal/BaseSessionStateBuilder.scala
index 37f4f8d4ab65..4e756084bbdb 100644
--- a/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/internal/BaseSessionStateBuilder.scala
+++ b/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/internal/BaseSessionStateBuilder.scala
@@ -287,14 +287,14 @@ abstract class BaseSessionStateBuilder(
       experimentalMethods,
       functionRegistry,
       udfRegistration,
-      catalog,
+      () => catalog,
       sqlParser,
-      analyzer,
-      optimizer,
+      () => analyzer,
+      () => optimizer,
       planner,
       streamingQueryManager,
       listenerManager,
-      resourceLoader,
+      () => resourceLoader,
       createQueryExecution,
       createClone)
   }
diff --git a/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/internal/SessionState.scala b/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/internal/SessionState.scala
index ac013ecf12ce..accbea41b960 100644
--- a/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/internal/SessionState.scala
+++ b/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/internal/SessionState.scala
@@ -42,14 +42,17 @@ import org.apache.spark.sql.util.{ExecutionListenerManager, QueryExecutionListen
  * @param experimentalMethods Interface to add custom planning strategies and optimizers.
  * @param functionRegistry Internal catalog for managing functions registered by the user.
  * @param udfRegistration Interface exposed to the user for registering user-defined functions.
- * @param catalog Internal catalog for managing table and database states.
+ * @param catalogBuilder a function to create an internal catalog for managing table and database
+ *                       states.
  * @param sqlParser Parser that extracts expressions, plans, table identifiers etc. from SQL texts.
- * @param analyzer Logical query plan analyzer for resolving unresolved attributes and relations.
- * @param optimizer Logical query plan optimizer.
+ * @param analyzerBuilder A function to create the logical query plan analyzer for resolving
+ *                        unresolved attributes and relations.
+ * @param optimizerBuilder a function to create the logical query plan optimizer.
  * @param planner Planner that converts optimized logical plans to physical plans.
  * @param streamingQueryManager Interface to start and stop streaming queries.
  * @param listenerManager Interface to register custom [[QueryExecutionListener]]s.
- * @param resourceLoader Session shared resource loader to load JARs, files, etc.
+ * @param resourceLoaderBuilder a function to create a session shared resource loader to load JARs,
+ *                              files, etc.
  * @param createQueryExecution Function used to create QueryExecution objects.
  * @param createClone Function used to create clones of the session state.
  */
@@ -59,17 +62,26 @@ private[sql] class SessionState(
     val experimentalMethods: ExperimentalMethods,
     val functionRegistry: FunctionRegistry,
     val udfRegistration: UDFRegistration,
-    val catalog: SessionCatalog,
+    catalogBuilder: () => SessionCatalog,
     val sqlParser: ParserInterface,
-    val analyzer: Analyzer,
-    val optimizer: Optimizer,
+    analyzerBuilder: () => Analyzer,
+    optimizerBuilder: () => Optimizer,
     val planner: SparkPlanner,
     val streamingQueryManager: StreamingQueryManager,
     val listenerManager: ExecutionListenerManager,
-    val resourceLoader: SessionResourceLoader,
+    resourceLoaderBuilder: () => SessionResourceLoader,
     createQueryExecution: LogicalPlan => QueryExecution,
     createClone: (SparkSession, SessionState) => SessionState) {
 
+  // The following fields are lazy to avoid creating the Hive client when creating SessionState.
+  lazy val catalog: SessionCatalog = catalogBuilder()
+
+  lazy val analyzer: Analyzer = analyzerBuilder()
+
+  lazy val optimizer: Optimizer = optimizerBuilder()
+
+  lazy val resourceLoader: SessionResourceLoader = resourceLoaderBuilder()
+
   def newHadoopConf(): Configuration = SessionState.newHadoopConf(
     sharedState.sparkContext.hadoopConfiguration,
     conf)
diff --git a/sql/hive-thriftserver/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/HiveMetastoreLazyInitializationSuite.scala b/sql/hive-thriftserver/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/HiveMetastoreLazyInitializationSuite.scala
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..3f135cc86498
--- /dev/null
+++ b/sql/hive-thriftserver/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/HiveMetastoreLazyInitializationSuite.scala
@@ -0,0 +1,57 @@
+/*
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
+ * contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
+ * this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
+ * The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
+ * (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
+ * the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+package org.apache.spark.sql.hive
+
+import org.apache.spark.SparkFunSuite
+import org.apache.spark.sql.{AnalysisException, SparkSession}
+import org.apache.spark.util.Utils
+
+class HiveMetastoreLazyInitializationSuite extends SparkFunSuite {
+
+  test("lazily initialize Hive client") {
+    val spark = SparkSession.builder()
+      .appName("HiveMetastoreLazyInitializationSuite")
+      .master("local[2]")
+      .enableHiveSupport()
+      .config("spark.hadoop.hive.metastore.uris", "thrift://127.0.0.1:11111")
+      .getOrCreate()
+    val originalLevel = org.apache.log4j.Logger.getRootLogger().getLevel
+    try {
+      // Avoid outputting a lot of expected warning logs
+      spark.sparkContext.setLogLevel("error")
+
+      // We should be able to run Spark jobs without Hive client.
+      assert(spark.sparkContext.range(0, 1).count() === 1)
+
+      // Make sure that we are not using the local derby metastore.
+      val exceptionString = Utils.exceptionString(intercept[AnalysisException] {
+        spark.sql("show tables")
+      })
+      for (msg <- Seq(
+        "show tables",
+        "Could not connect to meta store",
+        "org.apache.thrift.transport.TTransportException",
+        "Connection refused")) {
+        exceptionString.contains(msg)
+      }
+    } finally {
+      spark.sparkContext.setLogLevel(originalLevel.toString)
+      spark.stop()
+    }
+  }
+}