diff --git a/packages/nx/src/project-graph/build-project-graph.ts b/packages/nx/src/project-graph/build-project-graph.ts
index f96ae2d293c6f..62672bc18da5b 100644
--- a/packages/nx/src/project-graph/build-project-graph.ts
+++ b/packages/nx/src/project-graph/build-project-graph.ts
@@ -405,7 +405,7 @@ function buildExplicitDependenciesUsingWorkers(
 function getNumberOfWorkers(): number {
   return process.env.NX_PROJECT_GRAPH_MAX_WORKERS
     ? +process.env.NX_PROJECT_GRAPH_MAX_WORKERS
-    : os.cpus().length - 1;
+    : Math.min(os.cpus().length - 1, 8); // This is capped for cases in CI where `os.cpus()` returns way more CPUs than the resources that are allocated
 }
 
 function createContext(