Index: clang/include/clang/Basic/DiagnosticDriverKinds.td
===================================================================
--- clang/include/clang/Basic/DiagnosticDriverKinds.td
+++ clang/include/clang/Basic/DiagnosticDriverKinds.td
@@ -271,6 +271,9 @@
   InGroup<UnsupportedTargetOpt>;
 def warn_c_kext : Warning<
   "ignoring -fapple-kext which is valid for C++ and Objective-C++ only">;
+def warn_ignoring_fdiscard_for_bitcode : Warning<
+  "ignoring -fdiscard-value-names for LLVM Bitcode">,
+  InGroup<UnusedCommandLineArgument>;
 def warn_drv_input_file_unused : Warning<
   "%0: '%1' input unused%select{ when '%3' is present|}2">,
   InGroup<UnusedCommandLineArgument>;
Index: clang/lib/CodeGen/CodeGenAction.cpp
===================================================================
--- clang/lib/CodeGen/CodeGenAction.cpp
+++ clang/lib/CodeGen/CodeGenAction.cpp
@@ -1146,6 +1146,9 @@
                            CI.getTargetOpts(), CI.getLangOpts(),
                            CI.getFrontendOpts().ShowTimers,
                            std::move(LinkModules), *VMContext, nullptr);
+    // PR44896: Force DiscardValueNames as false. DiscardValueNames cannot be
+    // true here because the valued names are needed for reading textual IR.
+    Ctx.setDiscardValueNames(false);
     Ctx.setDiagnosticHandler(
         std::make_unique<ClangDiagnosticHandler>(CodeGenOpts, &Result));
 
Index: clang/lib/Driver/ToolChains/Clang.cpp
===================================================================
--- clang/lib/Driver/ToolChains/Clang.cpp
+++ clang/lib/Driver/ToolChains/Clang.cpp
@@ -4332,8 +4332,15 @@
 
   // Discard value names in assert builds unless otherwise specified.
   if (Args.hasFlag(options::OPT_fdiscard_value_names,
-                   options::OPT_fno_discard_value_names, !IsAssertBuild))
+                   options::OPT_fno_discard_value_names, !IsAssertBuild)) {
+    if (std::any_of(Inputs.begin(), Inputs.end(),
+                    [](const clang::driver::InputInfo &II) {
+                      return types::isLLVMIR(II.getType());
+                    })) {
+      D.Diag(diag::warn_ignoring_fdiscard_for_bitcode);
+    }
     CmdArgs.push_back("-discard-value-names");
+  }
 
   // Set the main file name, so that debug info works even with
   // -save-temps.
Index: clang/test/CodeGen/PR44896.ll
===================================================================
--- /dev/null
+++ clang/test/CodeGen/PR44896.ll
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+; RUN: %clang -fdiscard-value-names -S %s -o /dev/null 2>&1 | FileCheck %s
+; RUN: %clang_cc1 -S -emit-llvm %s -discard-value-names -o /dev/null
+; PR 44896
+
+; CHECK: ignoring -fdiscard-value-names for LLVM Bitcode
+
+target datalayout = "e-m:e-p270:32:32-p271:32:32-p272:64:64-i64:64-f80:128-n8:16:32:64-S128"
+target triple = "x86_64--linux-gnu"
+
+define linkonce i8* @b(i8* %a) {
+  ret i8* %a
+}
+