diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 5ebee891b..e00366971 100755
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -928,6 +928,8 @@ def build_static_kittens(
             print(shlex.join(c))
         e = os.environ.copy()
         e.update(env)
+        # https://github.com/kovidgoyal/kitty/issues/6051#issuecomment-1441369828
+        e.pop('PWD', None)
         if for_platform:
             e['CGO_ENABLED'] = '0'
             e['GOOS'] = for_platform[0]