diff --git a/Lib/test/test_free_threading/test_descr.py b/Lib/test/test_free_threading/test_descr.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000000..237a0bfc866ffaa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Lib/test/test_free_threading/test_descr.py
@@ -0,0 +1,46 @@
+import unittest
+
+from test import support
+from test.support import threading_helper
+
+
+N = 8
+
+
+@threading_helper.requires_working_threading()
+class TestDescrQualnameRace(unittest.TestCase):
+    # gh-154044: reading __qualname__ on a shared descriptor for the first time
+    # concurrently raced on the lazy d_qualname cache.
+
+    def race_first_access(self, descr):
+        results = []
+
+        def read():
+            results.append(descr.__qualname__)
+
+        threading_helper.run_concurrently(read, N)
+        self.assertEqual(len(set(results)), 1)
+        self.assertIsNotNone(results[0])
+
+    def test_slot_member_descriptors(self):
+        count = 100 if support.check_sanitizer(thread=True) else 300
+        for _ in range(count):
+            class C:
+                __slots__ = ("value",)
+            self.race_first_access(C.__dict__["value"])
+
+    def test_builtin_descriptors(self):
+        kinds = {"method_descriptor", "getset_descriptor", "wrapper_descriptor"}
+        descrs = [
+            v
+            for tp in (str, bytes, list, dict, set, int, float, tuple,
+                       frozenset, bytearray)
+            for v in vars(tp).values()
+            if type(v).__name__ in kinds
+        ]
+        for descr in descrs:
+            self.race_first_access(descr)
+
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    unittest.main()
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Core_and_Builtins/2026-07-25-12-44-13.gh-issue-154044.GBa2wP.rst b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Core_and_Builtins/2026-07-25-12-44-13.gh-issue-154044.GBa2wP.rst
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000000..7338ae0210450a7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Core_and_Builtins/2026-07-25-12-44-13.gh-issue-154044.GBa2wP.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Fix a data race on a descriptor's ``__qualname__`` cache in the
+:term:`free-threaded build`.
diff --git a/Objects/descrobject.c b/Objects/descrobject.c
index 568d978d27d12f9..c84af34464a55fc 100644
--- a/Objects/descrobject.c
+++ b/Objects/descrobject.c
@@ -621,9 +621,14 @@ static PyObject *
 descr_get_qualname(PyObject *self, void *Py_UNUSED(ignored))
 {
     PyDescrObject *descr = (PyDescrObject *)self;
-    if (descr->d_qualname == NULL)
+    PyObject *qualname;
+    Py_BEGIN_CRITICAL_SECTION(self);
+    if (descr->d_qualname == NULL) {
         descr->d_qualname = calculate_qualname(descr);
-    return Py_XNewRef(descr->d_qualname);
+    }
+    qualname = Py_XNewRef(descr->d_qualname);
+    Py_END_CRITICAL_SECTION();
+    return qualname;
 }
 
 static PyObject *