diff --git a/make/modules/java.desktop/lib/ClientLibraries.gmk b/make/modules/java.desktop/lib/ClientLibraries.gmk
index 41f3040222c..221d7578980 100644
--- a/make/modules/java.desktop/lib/ClientLibraries.gmk
+++ b/make/modules/java.desktop/lib/ClientLibraries.gmk
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 #
-# Copyright (c) 2011, 2024, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
+# Copyright (c) 2011, 2025, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
 # DO NOT ALTER OR REMOVE COPYRIGHT NOTICES OR THIS FILE HEADER.
 #
 # This code is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
@@ -360,8 +360,6 @@ else
   LIBFONTMANAGER_JDK_LIBS += libfreetype
 endif
 
-LIBFONTMANAGER_OPTIMIZATION := HIGHEST
-
 ifneq ($(filter $(TOOLCHAIN_TYPE), gcc clang), )
   # gcc (and to an extent clang) is particularly bad at optimizing these files,
   # causing a massive spike in compile time. We don't care about these
@@ -372,7 +370,6 @@ endif
 
 ifeq ($(call isTargetOs, windows), true)
   LIBFONTMANAGER_EXCLUDE_FILES += X11FontScaler.c X11TextRenderer.c
-  LIBFONTMANAGER_OPTIMIZATION := HIGHEST
 else ifeq ($(call isTargetOs, macosx), true)
   LIBFONTMANAGER_EXCLUDE_FILES += X11FontScaler.c X11TextRenderer.c \
       fontpath.c lcdglyph.c
@@ -393,7 +390,7 @@ $(eval $(call SetupJdkLibrary, BUILD_LIBFONTMANAGER, \
         AccelGlyphCache.c, \
     CFLAGS := $(LIBFONTMANAGER_CFLAGS), \
     CXXFLAGS := $(LIBFONTMANAGER_CFLAGS), \
-    OPTIMIZATION := $(LIBFONTMANAGER_OPTIMIZATION), \
+    OPTIMIZATION := HIGHEST, \
     CFLAGS_windows = -DCC_NOEX, \
     EXTRA_HEADER_DIRS := $(LIBFONTMANAGER_EXTRA_HEADER_DIRS), \
     EXTRA_SRC := $(LIBFONTMANAGER_EXTRA_SRC), \