diff --git a/cmd/grype-db/cli/commands/build.go b/cmd/grype-db/cli/commands/build.go
index 8b97a6a7..3e376187 100644
--- a/cmd/grype-db/cli/commands/build.go
+++ b/cmd/grype-db/cli/commands/build.go
@@ -157,6 +157,13 @@ func earliestTimestamp(states []provider.State) (time.Time, error) {
 	if len(states) == 0 {
 		return time.Time{}, fmt.Errorf("cannot find earliest timestamp: no states provided")
 	}
+
+	// special case when there is exactly 1 state, return its timestamp even
+	// if it is nvd, because otherwise quality gates that pull only nvd deterministically fail.
+	if len(states) == 1 {
+		return states[0].Timestamp, nil
+	}
+
 	var earliest time.Time
 	for _, s := range states {
 		// the NVD api is constantly down, so we don't want to consider it for the earliest timestamp
diff --git a/cmd/grype-db/cli/commands/build_test.go b/cmd/grype-db/cli/commands/build_test.go
index 46b02041..97c19af7 100644
--- a/cmd/grype-db/cli/commands/build_test.go
+++ b/cmd/grype-db/cli/commands/build_test.go
@@ -47,6 +47,16 @@ func Test_earliestTimestamp(t *testing.T) {
 			},
 			want: time.Date(2021, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, time.UTC),
 		},
+		{
+			name: "single state, but it's nvd",
+			states: []provider.State{
+				{
+					Provider:  "nvd",
+					Timestamp: time.Date(2021, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, time.UTC),
+				},
+			},
+			want: time.Date(2021, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, time.UTC),
+		},
 		{
 			name: "all states have provider nvd",
 			states: []provider.State{