diff --git a/mlir/lib/Dialect/Linalg/IR/LinalgOps.cpp b/mlir/lib/Dialect/Linalg/IR/LinalgOps.cpp
index 72fb3308a2549..089ccc6680e48 100644
--- a/mlir/lib/Dialect/Linalg/IR/LinalgOps.cpp
+++ b/mlir/lib/Dialect/Linalg/IR/LinalgOps.cpp
@@ -2284,7 +2284,12 @@ LogicalResult IndexOp::verify() {
 }
 
 OpFoldResult IndexOp::fold(FoldAdaptor adaptor) {
-  auto linalgOp = cast<LinalgOp>((*this)->getParentOp());
+  auto linalgOp = dyn_cast_or_null<LinalgOp>((*this)->getParentOp());
+  // Bail out if `linalg.index` does not have a proper parent yet at this
+  // point, e.g., when calling `createOrFold` during IR construction in
+  // `genericOp::build`.
+  if (!linalgOp)
+    return OpFoldResult{};
 
   // Index of unit dims is always 0.
   SmallVector<int64_t, 4> loopBounds = linalgOp.getStaticLoopRanges();