diff --git a/llvm/test/tools/llvm-nm/XCOFF/export-symbols.test b/llvm/test/tools/llvm-nm/XCOFF/export-symbols.test
--- a/llvm/test/tools/llvm-nm/XCOFF/export-symbols.test
+++ b/llvm/test/tools/llvm-nm/XCOFF/export-symbols.test
@@ -52,6 +52,10 @@
 # RUN: yaml2obj -DFLAG=0x2000 --docnum=2 %s -o %t_shared.o
 # RUN: llvm-nm --export-symbols %t_shared.o | count 0
 
+## Test that llvm-nm ignores AIX linker import files when using --export-symbols. These start with "#!".
+# RUN: echo -e "#!\n bar\n foo " > %t_imp.txt
+# RUN: llvm-nm --export-symbols %t_imp.txt 2>&1 | count 0 
+
 --- !XCOFF
 FileHeader:
   MagicNumber:       0x1DF
diff --git a/llvm/tools/llvm-nm/llvm-nm.cpp b/llvm/tools/llvm-nm/llvm-nm.cpp
--- a/llvm/tools/llvm-nm/llvm-nm.cpp
+++ b/llvm/tools/llvm-nm/llvm-nm.cpp
@@ -2262,6 +2262,14 @@
   if (error(BufferOrErr.getError(), Filename))
     return SymbolList;
 
+  // Ignore AIX linker import files (these files start with "#!"), when
+  // exporting symbols.
+  const char *BuffStart = (*BufferOrErr)->getBufferStart();
+  size_t BufferSize = (*BufferOrErr)->getBufferSize();
+  if (ExportSymbols && BufferSize >= 2 && BuffStart[0] == '#' &&
+      BuffStart[1] == '!')
+    return SymbolList;
+
   LLVMContext Context;
   LLVMContext *ContextPtr = NoLLVMBitcode ? nullptr : &Context;
   Expected<std::unique_ptr<Binary>> BinaryOrErr =