diff --git a/src/main/emulator/backends/ios-emulator-backend.ts b/src/main/emulator/backends/ios-emulator-backend.ts
index 8d3c31604e4..7d7d84353d9 100644
--- a/src/main/emulator/backends/ios-emulator-backend.ts
+++ b/src/main/emulator/backends/ios-emulator-backend.ts
@@ -46,14 +46,25 @@ export class IosEmulatorBackend implements EmulatorBackend {
     logcat: false
   }
 
-  private readonly serveSimExecutable: ServeSimExecutable
+  private serveSimExecutableCache: ServeSimExecutable | undefined
   private readonly waitForEndpointReady: (endpoint: string) => Promise<boolean>
 
   constructor(options: EmulatorBridgeOptions = {}) {
-    this.serveSimExecutable = resolveServeSimExecutable()
     this.waitForEndpointReady = options.waitForEndpointReady ?? waitForServeSimEndpointReady
   }
 
+  // Why: resolving the executable can materialize the serve-sim runtime (a
+  // recursive copy + xattr subprocess on darwin first-launch-per-version), so
+  // defer it to first actual use. Constructing this backend at app startup
+  // (inside app.whenReady, before the main window opens) must not block the
+  // main thread on that work.
+  private get serveSimExecutable(): ServeSimExecutable {
+    if (!this.serveSimExecutableCache) {
+      this.serveSimExecutableCache = resolveServeSimExecutable()
+    }
+    return this.serveSimExecutableCache
+  }
+
   isSupportedOnHost(): boolean {
     return platform() === 'darwin'
   }