diff --git a/sql/vector_mhnsw.cc b/sql/vector_mhnsw.cc
index c480c36c7e7ad..475bdf007ec9b 100644
--- a/sql/vector_mhnsw.cc
+++ b/sql/vector_mhnsw.cc
@@ -36,6 +36,22 @@ static constexpr float subdist_margin= 1.05f;
 static constexpr double subdist_stddev_threshold= 0.05;  // 3σ, p>99.9%
 static constexpr ulonglong subdist_stddev_valid= 10000;  // sufficient
 
+/* Portable read prefetch, modeled after UNIV_PREFETCH_R. */
+#if defined(__GNUC__) || defined(__clang__)
+# define MHNSW_PREFETCH_READ(addr) __builtin_prefetch((addr), 0, 3)
+#elif defined(_MSC_VER)
+# include <intrin.h>
+# if defined(_M_IX86) || defined(_M_X64)
+#  define MHNSW_PREFETCH_READ(addr) \
+     _mm_prefetch(reinterpret_cast<const char*>(addr), _MM_HINT_T0)
+# elif defined(_M_ARM64)
+#  define MHNSW_PREFETCH_READ(addr) __prefetch(addr)
+# endif
+#endif
+#ifndef MHNSW_PREFETCH_READ
+# define MHNSW_PREFETCH_READ(addr) ((void) 0)
+#endif
+
 /*
  The class below can assume normal distribution and only collect
  M1 and M2, or go beyond that and collect M3 and M4 to account
@@ -1347,6 +1363,18 @@ static int search_layer(MHNSW_param *p, const FVector *target, float threshold,
       if (res == 0xff)
         continue;
 
+      // A node and its vector share one allocation. Prefetch unseen nodes before
+      // computing distances so later loads can overlap with work on earlier ones.
+      for (size_t i= 0; i < 8; i++)
+      {
+        FVectorNode *link= links[i];
+        if (!(res & (1 << i)) && link)
+        {
+          MHNSW_PREFETCH_READ(link);
+          MHNSW_PREFETCH_READ(reinterpret_cast<const char*>(link) + 64);
+        }
+      }
+
       for (size_t i= 0; i < 8; i++)
       {
         if (res & (1 << i))