diff --git a/opentelemetry-sdk/src/opentelemetry/sdk/trace/export/_async/__init__.py b/opentelemetry-sdk/src/opentelemetry/sdk/trace/export/_async/__init__.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..d5a1781b6bf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/opentelemetry-sdk/src/opentelemetry/sdk/trace/export/_async/__init__.py
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+# Copyright The OpenTelemetry Authors
+#
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+# You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+#     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+# limitations under the License.
+
+from opentelemetry.sdk.trace.export._async.async_batch_span_processor import (
+    AsyncBatchSpanProcessor,
+)
+
+__all__ = ["AsyncBatchSpanProcessor"]
diff --git a/opentelemetry-sdk/src/opentelemetry/sdk/trace/export/_async/async_batch_span_processor.py b/opentelemetry-sdk/src/opentelemetry/sdk/trace/export/_async/async_batch_span_processor.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..aab633d51ed
--- /dev/null
+++ b/opentelemetry-sdk/src/opentelemetry/sdk/trace/export/_async/async_batch_span_processor.py
@@ -0,0 +1,211 @@
+# Copyright The OpenTelemetry Authors
+#
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+# You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+#     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+# limitations under the License.
+
+import asyncio
+import logging
+from typing import List, Optional
+from logging import getLogger
+
+from opentelemetry import context as context_api
+from opentelemetry.sdk.trace import ReadableSpan, Span
+from opentelemetry.sdk.trace.export import (
+    BatchSpanProcessor,
+    SpanExporter,
+    SpanProcessor,
+)
+from opentelemetry.sdk.trace.export._async.loop import (
+    run_in_otel_event_loop,
+)
+
+_logger = getLogger(__name__)
+
+
+class _BlockableEvent(asyncio.Event):
+    """Equivalent to `asyncio.Event` but provides `set_and_wait` which blocks until the event
+    is cleared"""
+
+    def __init__(self) -> None:
+        super().__init__()
+        self._clear_event = asyncio.Event()
+
+    def clear(self) -> None:
+        super().clear()
+        self._clear_event.set()
+
+    async def set_and_wait(self) -> None:
+        """Similar to set() but blocks until the event to cleared (probably by the waiter)"""
+        self.set()
+        await self._clear_event.wait()
+        self._clear_event.clear()
+
+
+async def _wait_event(e: asyncio.Event, timeout: float) -> bool:
+    """Similar to `Event.wait` but returns a bool instead of throwing
+
+    True indicates the event was set, False that is was not set within timeout
+    """
+    try:
+        await asyncio.wait_for(e.wait(), timeout)
+        return True
+    except TimeoutError:
+        return False
+
+
+class _Worker:
+    def __init__(
+        self,
+        *,
+        span_exporter: SpanExporter,
+        max_queue_size: int,
+        schedule_delay_millis: float,
+        max_export_batch_size: int,
+        export_timeout_millis: float,
+    ) -> None:
+        self._span_exporter = span_exporter
+        self._schedule_delay_millis = schedule_delay_millis
+        self._max_export_batch_size = max_export_batch_size
+        self._max_queue_size = max_queue_size
+        self._export_timeout_millis = export_timeout_millis
+        self._span_exporter = span_exporter
+
+        self._lqueue: List[ReadableSpan] = []
+        self._flush_event = _BlockableEvent()
+        self._worker_task: asyncio.Task[None]
+
+    async def _start(self) -> None:
+        self._worker_task = asyncio.create_task(self._worker())
+
+    async def _worker(self) -> None:
+        while True:
+            should_flush = await _wait_event(
+                self._flush_event, self._schedule_delay_millis / 1000
+            )
+            if should_flush:
+                await self._drain_queue()
+                self._flush_event.clear()
+                continue
+
+            await self._export_batch()
+
+    async def _export_batch(self) -> None:
+        spans = self._lqueue[: self._max_export_batch_size]
+        self._lqueue = self._lqueue[self._max_export_batch_size :]
+
+        _logger.info("Doing export of %s spans!", len(spans))
+        # unfortunately any use of ThreadPoolExecutors doesn't work in atexit hooks. See
+        # https://github.com/python/cpython/issues/86813. If it fails with RuntimeError,
+        # try again blocking the event loop
+        try:
+            await asyncio.to_thread(self._span_exporter.export, spans)
+        except RuntimeError:
+            logging.warn(
+                "ThreadPoolExecutor was already shutdown, exporting synchronously in event loop thread. "
+                "This might be running in an atexit hook."
+            )
+            self._span_exporter.export(spans)
+
+    async def _drain_queue(self) -> None:
+        # do in while loop as more spans could be enqueued while awaiting export
+        _logger.info("_drain_queue() export of %s spans!", len(self._lqueue))
+        while self._lqueue:
+            await self._export_batch()
+
+    async def _enqueue(self, span: ReadableSpan) -> None:
+        if len(self._lqueue) > self._max_queue_size:
+            # drop the span
+            _logger.info("Queue is full, dropping span!")
+            return
+
+        self._lqueue.append(span)
+
+    async def _shutdown(self) -> None:
+        self._worker_task.cancel()
+        try:
+            await self._worker_task
+        except asyncio.CancelledError:
+            _logger.info("worker task cancelled")
+            pass
+        _logger.info("Draining queue")
+        await self._drain_queue()
+
+    async def _force_flush(self) -> None:
+        await self._flush_event.set_and_wait()
+
+    # Public thread safe API
+    start = run_in_otel_event_loop(_start)
+    enqueue = run_in_otel_event_loop(_enqueue)
+    shutdown = run_in_otel_event_loop(_shutdown)
+    force_flush = run_in_otel_event_loop(_force_flush)
+
+
+class AsyncBatchSpanProcessor(SpanProcessor):
+    def __init__(
+        self,
+        span_exporter: SpanExporter,
+        *,
+        max_queue_size: Optional[int] = None,
+        schedule_delay_millis: Optional[float] = None,
+        max_export_batch_size: Optional[int] = None,
+        export_timeout_millis: Optional[float] = None,
+    ):
+        if max_queue_size is None:
+            max_queue_size = BatchSpanProcessor._default_max_queue_size()
+
+        if schedule_delay_millis is None:
+            schedule_delay_millis = (
+                BatchSpanProcessor._default_schedule_delay_millis()
+            )
+
+        if max_export_batch_size is None:
+            max_export_batch_size = (
+                BatchSpanProcessor._default_max_export_batch_size()
+            )
+
+        if export_timeout_millis is None:
+            export_timeout_millis = (
+                BatchSpanProcessor._default_export_timeout_millis()
+            )
+
+        BatchSpanProcessor._validate_arguments(
+            max_queue_size, schedule_delay_millis, max_export_batch_size
+        )
+
+        self._worker = _Worker(
+            span_exporter=span_exporter,
+            max_queue_size=max_queue_size,
+            schedule_delay_millis=schedule_delay_millis,
+            max_export_batch_size=max_export_batch_size,
+            export_timeout_millis=export_timeout_millis,
+        )
+        self._worker.start().result()
+
+    def on_start(
+        self,
+        span: Span,
+        parent_context: Optional[context_api.Context] = None,
+    ) -> None:
+        pass
+
+    def on_end(self, span: ReadableSpan) -> None:
+        self._worker.enqueue(span).result()
+
+    def shutdown(self) -> None:
+        self._worker.shutdown().result()
+
+    def force_flush(self, timeout_millis: int = 30000) -> bool:
+        try:
+            self._worker.force_flush().result(timeout=timeout_millis / 1000)
+            return True
+        except TimeoutError:
+            return False
diff --git a/opentelemetry-sdk/src/opentelemetry/sdk/trace/export/_async/loop.py b/opentelemetry-sdk/src/opentelemetry/sdk/trace/export/_async/loop.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..d4c23d3726a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/opentelemetry-sdk/src/opentelemetry/sdk/trace/export/_async/loop.py
@@ -0,0 +1,74 @@
+# Copyright The OpenTelemetry Authors
+#
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+# You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+#     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+# limitations under the License.
+
+import asyncio
+from functools import wraps
+from logging import getLogger
+from typing import Callable, Awaitable, Optional, ParamSpec, TypeVar
+from opentelemetry.util._once import Once
+from threading import current_thread, Thread
+from concurrent.futures import Future
+
+_logger = getLogger(__name__)
+
+_event_loop: Optional[asyncio.AbstractEventLoop] = None
+_create_loop_once = Once()
+
+
+def _create() -> None:
+    loop = asyncio.new_event_loop()
+    global _event_loop
+    _event_loop = loop
+
+    def thread() -> None:
+        try:
+            _logger.info("Starting loop in thread %s", current_thread())
+            loop.run_forever()
+        finally:
+            loop.run_until_complete(loop.shutdown_asyncgens())
+            loop.close()
+
+    Thread(
+        name="OTelSharedAsyncioLoopThread", target=thread, daemon=True
+    ).start()
+
+
+def get_otel_event_loop() -> asyncio.AbstractEventLoop:
+    """Shared event loop used by all OpenTelemetry components doing background work
+
+    Currently runs in its own thread, but could run in the user's existing event loop
+    """
+    # TODO: consider use the existing event loop (asyncio.get_running_loop()) if it is
+    # available. This would only work if we add async variants to providers'
+    # shutdown/force_flush methods. Otherwise, it will just deadlock the event loop thread.
+
+    _create_loop_once.do_once(_create)
+    assert _event_loop is not None
+    return _event_loop
+
+
+P = ParamSpec("P")
+R = TypeVar("R")
+
+
+def run_in_otel_event_loop(
+    f: Callable[P, Awaitable[R]]
+) -> Callable[P, Future[R]]:
+    @wraps(f)
+    def wrap(*args: P.args, **kwargs: P.kwargs) -> Future[R]:
+        return asyncio.run_coroutine_threadsafe(
+            f(*args, **kwargs), get_otel_event_loop()
+        )
+
+    return wrap
diff --git a/script.py b/script.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..5ace5bef353
--- /dev/null
+++ b/script.py
@@ -0,0 +1,46 @@
+import logging
+import time
+
+from opentelemetry.sdk.trace.export import ConsoleSpanExporter
+from opentelemetry.sdk.trace.export._async import (
+    AsyncBatchSpanProcessor,
+)
+from opentelemetry.sdk.trace import TracerProvider
+
+logging.basicConfig(level=logging.DEBUG)
+
+tp = TracerProvider()
+tp.add_span_processor(
+    AsyncBatchSpanProcessor(
+        ConsoleSpanExporter(out=open("./spans.log", "w+")),
+        schedule_delay_millis=1000,
+    )
+)
+t = tp.get_tracer(__name__)
+
+
+def main() -> None:
+    # write spans and allow them to export
+    for _ in range(10):
+        with t.start_as_current_span("foo"):
+            pass
+
+    time.sleep(2.5)
+
+    # write spans and force flush them immediately
+    for _ in range(10):
+        with t.start_as_current_span("flushme"):
+            pass
+
+    tp.force_flush()
+    time.sleep(2.5)
+
+    # write spans and allow shutdown to flush them
+    for _ in range(10):
+        with t.start_as_current_span("shutmedown"):
+            pass
+
+
+main()
+
+tp.shutdown()