diff --git a/bitbake/lib/bb/utils.py b/bitbake/lib/bb/utils.py
index 1b4fb93a30..976fe73bc1 100644
--- a/bitbake/lib/bb/utils.py
+++ b/bitbake/lib/bb/utils.py
@@ -763,8 +763,20 @@ def mkdirhier(directory):
     try:
         os.makedirs(directory)
     except OSError as e:
-        if e.errno != errno.EEXIST or not os.path.isdir(directory):
+        if e.errno != errno.EEXIST:
             raise e
+        if os.path.isdir(directory):
+            return
+        # We can end up here if there is a race between two mkdirs on an NFS mount,
+        # which happens more often with sstate that you'd think. The server returns
+        # EEXIST but the local attribute cache is out of date. It can be refreshed with
+        # an opendir call, so try that (via listdir) and check the directory again
+        # before we really fail.
+        os.listdir(os.path.dirname(directory))
+        if os.path.isdir(directory):
+            return
+        bb.warn("mkdir: %s is not a directory?")
+        raise e
 
 def movefile(src, dest, newmtime = None, sstat = None):
     """Moves a file from src to dest, preserving all permissions and