diff --git a/AconfigFlags.bp b/AconfigFlags.bp
index 9fc4fff..dae7e10 100644
--- a/AconfigFlags.bp
+++ b/AconfigFlags.bp
@@ -89,6 +89,7 @@
         "com.android.media.flags.editing-aconfig-java",
         "com.android.media.flags.performance-aconfig-java",
         "com.android.media.flags.projection-aconfig-java",
+        "com.android.net.http.flags-aconfig-exported-java",
         "com.android.net.thread.platform.flags-aconfig-java",
         "com.android.ranging.flags.ranging-aconfig-java-export",
         "com.android.server.contextualsearch.flags-java",
diff --git a/core/java/com/android/internal/os/ZygoteInit.java b/core/java/com/android/internal/os/ZygoteInit.java
index e402ddf..e60879e 100644
--- a/core/java/com/android/internal/os/ZygoteInit.java
+++ b/core/java/com/android/internal/os/ZygoteInit.java
@@ -19,6 +19,8 @@
 import static android.system.OsConstants.S_IRWXG;
 import static android.system.OsConstants.S_IRWXO;
 
+import static android.net.http.Flags.preloadHttpengineInZygote;
+
 import static com.android.internal.util.FrameworkStatsLog.BOOT_TIME_EVENT_ELAPSED_TIME__EVENT__SECONDARY_ZYGOTE_INIT_START;
 import static com.android.internal.util.FrameworkStatsLog.BOOT_TIME_EVENT_ELAPSED_TIME__EVENT__ZYGOTE_INIT_START;
 
@@ -27,6 +29,7 @@
 import android.content.pm.SharedLibraryInfo;
 import android.content.res.Resources;
 import android.os.Build;
+import android.net.http.HttpEngine;
 import android.os.Environment;
 import android.os.IInstalld;
 import android.os.Process;
@@ -144,6 +147,23 @@
         Trace.traceEnd(Trace.TRACE_TAG_DALVIK);
         preloadSharedLibraries();
         preloadTextResources();
+
+        // TODO: remove the try/catch and the flag read as soon as the flag is ramped and 25Q2
+        // starts building from source.
+        if (preloadHttpengineInZygote()) {
+            try {
+                HttpEngine.preload();
+            } catch (NoSuchMethodError e){
+                // The flag protecting this API is not an exported
+                // flag because ZygoteInit happens before the
+                // system service has initialized the flag which means
+                // that we can't query the real value of the flag
+                // from the tethering module. In order to avoid crashing
+                // in the case where we have (new zygote, old tethering).
+                // we catch the NoSuchMethodError and just log.
+                Log.d(TAG, "HttpEngine.preload() threw " + e);
+            }
+        }
         // Ask the WebViewFactory to do any initialization that must run in the zygote process,
         // for memory sharing purposes.
         WebViewFactory.prepareWebViewInZygote();