diff --git a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/collect/nestedset/Depset.java b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/collect/nestedset/Depset.java
index 332092a04e0b39..6bf3cd504a43df 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/collect/nestedset/Depset.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/collect/nestedset/Depset.java
@@ -392,7 +392,16 @@ static Depset fromDirectAndTransitive(
     if (builder.isEmpty()) {
       return builder.getOrder().emptyDepset();
     }
-    return new Depset(type, builder.build());
+    NestedSet<Object> set = builder.build();
+    // If the nested set was optimized to one of the transitive elements, reuse the corresponding
+    // depset.
+    for (Depset x : transitive) {
+      if (x.getSet() == set) {
+        return x;
+      }
+    }
+
+    return new Depset(type, set);
   }
 
   /** An exception thrown when validation fails on the type of elements of a nested set. */
diff --git a/src/test/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/collect/nestedset/DepsetTest.java b/src/test/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/collect/nestedset/DepsetTest.java
index a2139858beb8f6..3905f90951a970 100644
--- a/src/test/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/collect/nestedset/DepsetTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/collect/nestedset/DepsetTest.java
@@ -417,4 +417,17 @@ public void testEmptyDepsetInternedPerOrder() throws Exception {
     assertThat(ev.lookup("stable1")).isNotSameInstanceAs(ev.lookup("preorder1"));
     assertThat(ev.lookup("stable2")).isNotSameInstanceAs(ev.lookup("preorder2"));
   }
+
+  @Test
+  public void testSingleNonEmptyTransitiveAndNoDirectsUnwrapped() throws Exception {
+    ev.exec(
+        "inner = depset([1, 2, 3])", "outer = depset(transitive = [depset(), inner, depset()])");
+    assertThat(ev.lookup("outer")).isSameInstanceAs(ev.lookup("inner"));
+  }
+
+  @Test
+  public void testSingleNonEmptyTransitiveAndMatchingDirectUnwrapped() throws Exception {
+    ev.exec("inner = depset([1])", "outer = depset([1], transitive = [depset(), inner, depset()])");
+    assertThat(ev.lookup("outer")).isSameInstanceAs(ev.lookup("inner"));
+  }
 }