diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index 2d2eddcc..fc0d9e5a 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -231,6 +231,47 @@ dependencies = [
  "cache-padded",
 ]
 
+[[package]]
+name = "const_fn"
+version = "0.4.5"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "28b9d6de7f49e22cf97ad17fc4036ece69300032f45f78f30b4a4482cdc3f4a6"
+
+[[package]]
+name = "crossbeam-channel"
+version = "0.5.0"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "dca26ee1f8d361640700bde38b2c37d8c22b3ce2d360e1fc1c74ea4b0aa7d775"
+dependencies = [
+ "cfg-if 1.0.0",
+ "crossbeam-utils",
+]
+
+[[package]]
+name = "crossbeam-deque"
+version = "0.8.0"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "94af6efb46fef72616855b036a624cf27ba656ffc9be1b9a3c931cfc7749a9a9"
+dependencies = [
+ "cfg-if 1.0.0",
+ "crossbeam-epoch",
+ "crossbeam-utils",
+]
+
+[[package]]
+name = "crossbeam-epoch"
+version = "0.9.1"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "a1aaa739f95311c2c7887a76863f500026092fb1dce0161dab577e559ef3569d"
+dependencies = [
+ "cfg-if 1.0.0",
+ "const_fn",
+ "crossbeam-utils",
+ "lazy_static",
+ "memoffset",
+ "scopeguard",
+]
+
 [[package]]
 name = "crossbeam-utils"
 version = "0.8.1"
@@ -289,6 +330,12 @@ dependencies = [
  "winapi",
 ]
 
+[[package]]
+name = "either"
+version = "1.6.1"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "e78d4f1cc4ae33bbfc157ed5d5a5ef3bc29227303d595861deb238fcec4e9457"
+
 [[package]]
 name = "event-listener"
 version = "2.5.1"
@@ -537,6 +584,7 @@ name = "helix-syntax"
 version = "0.1.0"
 dependencies = [
  "cc",
+ "rayon",
  "tree-sitter",
 ]
 
@@ -725,6 +773,15 @@ version = "2.3.4"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
 checksum = "0ee1c47aaa256ecabcaea351eae4a9b01ef39ed810004e298d2511ed284b1525"
 
+[[package]]
+name = "memoffset"
+version = "0.6.1"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "157b4208e3059a8f9e78d559edc658e13df41410cb3ae03979c83130067fdd87"
+dependencies = [
+ "autocfg",
+]
+
 [[package]]
 name = "mio"
 version = "0.7.7"
@@ -918,6 +975,31 @@ dependencies = [
  "proc-macro2",
 ]
 
+[[package]]
+name = "rayon"
+version = "1.5.0"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "8b0d8e0819fadc20c74ea8373106ead0600e3a67ef1fe8da56e39b9ae7275674"
+dependencies = [
+ "autocfg",
+ "crossbeam-deque",
+ "either",
+ "rayon-core",
+]
+
+[[package]]
+name = "rayon-core"
+version = "1.9.0"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "9ab346ac5921dc62ffa9f89b7a773907511cdfa5490c572ae9be1be33e8afa4a"
+dependencies = [
+ "crossbeam-channel",
+ "crossbeam-deque",
+ "crossbeam-utils",
+ "lazy_static",
+ "num_cpus",
+]
+
 [[package]]
 name = "redox_syscall"
 version = "0.1.57"
diff --git a/helix-syntax/Cargo.toml b/helix-syntax/Cargo.toml
index 12da3924..86aaf360 100644
--- a/helix-syntax/Cargo.toml
+++ b/helix-syntax/Cargo.toml
@@ -11,3 +11,4 @@ tree-sitter = "0.17"
 
 [build-dependencies]
 cc = { version = "1",  features = ["parallel"] }
+rayon = { version = "1.5" }
diff --git a/helix-syntax/build.rs b/helix-syntax/build.rs
index 6b721c11..627a0290 100644
--- a/helix-syntax/build.rs
+++ b/helix-syntax/build.rs
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+use rayon::prelude::*;
 use std::path::PathBuf;
 use std::{env, fs};
 
@@ -114,10 +115,10 @@ fn main() {
         "tree-sitter-cpp".to_string(),
     ];
     let dirs = collect_tree_sitter_dirs(ignore);
-    for dir in dirs {
+    dirs.par_iter().for_each(|dir| {
         let language = &dir[12..]; // skip tree-sitter- prefix
         build_dir(&dir, &language);
-    }
+    });
     build_dir("tree-sitter-typescript/tsx", "tsx");
     build_dir("tree-sitter-typescript/typescript", "typescript");
 }