diff --git a/.chloggen/vcenter-nil-pointer.yaml b/.chloggen/vcenter-nil-pointer.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..bd4c6434b64d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.chloggen/vcenter-nil-pointer.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+# One of 'breaking', 'deprecation', 'new_component', 'enhancement', 'bug_fix'
+change_type: 'bug_fix'
+
+# The name of the component, or a single word describing the area of concern, (e.g. filelogreceiver)
+component: vcenterreceiver
+
+# A brief description of the change.  Surround your text with quotes ("") if it needs to start with a backtick (`).
+note: collect VM may be panic nil pointer.
+
+# One or more tracking issues related to the change
+issues: [16277]
+
+# (Optional) One or more lines of additional information to render under the primary note.
+# These lines will be padded with 2 spaces and then inserted directly into the document.
+# Use pipe (|) for multiline entries.
+subtext:
diff --git a/receiver/vcenterreceiver/scraper.go b/receiver/vcenterreceiver/scraper.go
index 4081169c473a..d6747a61e883 100644
--- a/receiver/vcenterreceiver/scraper.go
+++ b/receiver/vcenterreceiver/scraper.go
@@ -269,8 +269,6 @@ func (v *vcenterMetricScraper) collectVMs(
 			continue
 		}
 
-		vmUUID := moVM.Config.InstanceUuid
-
 		if string(moVM.Runtime.PowerState) == "poweredOff" {
 			poweredOffVMs++
 		} else {
@@ -288,6 +286,12 @@ func (v *vcenterMetricScraper) collectVMs(
 			return
 		}
 
+		if moVM.Config == nil {
+			errs.AddPartial(1, fmt.Errorf("vm config empty for %s", hostname))
+			continue
+		}
+		vmUUID := moVM.Config.InstanceUuid
+
 		v.collectVM(ctx, colTime, moVM, errs)
 		v.mb.EmitForResource(
 			metadata.WithVcenterVMName(vm.Name()),