diff --git a/llvm/include/llvm/CodeGen/LinkAllCodegenComponents.h b/llvm/include/llvm/CodeGen/LinkAllCodegenComponents.h
--- a/llvm/include/llvm/CodeGen/LinkAllCodegenComponents.h
+++ b/llvm/include/llvm/CodeGen/LinkAllCodegenComponents.h
@@ -14,7 +14,6 @@
 #ifndef LLVM_CODEGEN_LINKALLCODEGENCOMPONENTS_H
 #define LLVM_CODEGEN_LINKALLCODEGENCOMPONENTS_H
 
-#include "llvm/IR/BuiltinGCs.h"
 #include "llvm/CodeGen/Passes.h"
 #include "llvm/CodeGen/SchedulerRegistry.h"
 #include "llvm/Target/TargetMachine.h"
@@ -38,8 +37,6 @@
       (void) llvm::createGreedyRegisterAllocator();
       (void) llvm::createDefaultPBQPRegisterAllocator();
 
-      llvm::linkAllBuiltinGCs();
-
       (void) llvm::createBURRListDAGScheduler(nullptr,
                                               llvm::CodeGenOpt::Default);
       (void) llvm::createSourceListDAGScheduler(nullptr,
diff --git a/llvm/lib/IR/GCStrategy.cpp b/llvm/lib/IR/GCStrategy.cpp
--- a/llvm/lib/IR/GCStrategy.cpp
+++ b/llvm/lib/IR/GCStrategy.cpp
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@
 
 #include "llvm/IR/GCStrategy.h"
 #include "llvm/ADT/Twine.h"
+#include "llvm/IR/BuiltinGCs.h"
 
 using namespace llvm;
 
@@ -25,6 +26,16 @@
     if (S.getName() == Name)
       return S.instantiate();
 
+  // We need to link all the builtin GCs when LLVM is used as a static library.
+  // The linker will quite happily remove the static constructors that register
+  // the builtin GCs if we don't use a function from that object. This function
+  // does nothing but we need to make sure it is (or at least could be, even
+  // with all optimisations enabled) called *somewhere*, and this is a good
+  // place to do that: if the GC strategies are being used then this function
+  // obviously can't be removed by the linker, and here it won't affect
+  // performance, since there's about to be a fatal error anyway.
+  llvm::linkAllBuiltinGCs();
+
   if (GCRegistry::begin() == GCRegistry::end()) {
     // In normal operation, the registry should not be empty.  There should
     // be the builtin GCs if nothing else.  The most likely scenario here is