diff --git a/substratevm/src/com.oracle.svm.core/src/com/oracle/svm/core/jvmstat/PerfManager.java b/substratevm/src/com.oracle.svm.core/src/com/oracle/svm/core/jvmstat/PerfManager.java
index 93795fa4c3cf..6d4d1e52f45b 100644
--- a/substratevm/src/com.oracle.svm.core/src/com/oracle/svm/core/jvmstat/PerfManager.java
+++ b/substratevm/src/com.oracle.svm.core/src/com/oracle/svm/core/jvmstat/PerfManager.java
@@ -44,6 +44,7 @@
 import com.oracle.svm.core.locks.VMMutex;
 import com.oracle.svm.core.option.HostedOptionKey;
 import com.oracle.svm.core.option.RuntimeOptionKey;
+import com.oracle.svm.core.thread.RecurringCallbackSupport;
 import com.oracle.svm.core.util.VMError;
 
 import jdk.graal.compiler.options.Option;
@@ -184,8 +185,9 @@ private static class PerfDataThread extends Thread {
 
         @Override
         public void run() {
-            initializeMemory();
+            RecurringCallbackSupport.suspendCallbackTimer("Performance data thread must not execute recurring callbacks.");
 
+            initializeMemory();
             try {
                 sampleData();
                 ImageSingletons.lookup(PerfMemory.class).setAccessible();
@@ -213,8 +215,11 @@ private void initializeMemory() {
 
                 initialized = true;
                 initializationCondition.broadcast();
+            } catch (OutOfMemoryError e) {
+                /* For now, we can only rethrow the error to terminate the thread (see GR-40601). */
+                throw e;
             } catch (Throwable e) {
-                VMError.shouldNotReachHere(ERROR_DURING_INITIALIZATION, e);
+                throw VMError.shouldNotReachHere(ERROR_DURING_INITIALIZATION, e);
             } finally {
                 initializationMutex.unlock();
             }