diff --git a/.github/workflows/release_nightly.yml b/.github/workflows/release_nightly.yml
index 61f224ecb0..39cfa68bc2 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/release_nightly.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/release_nightly.yml
@@ -121,9 +121,6 @@ jobs:
           echo "Publishing version: ${version} on release channel nightly"
           echo "nightly" > crates/zed/RELEASE_CHANNEL
 
-      - name: Generate license file
-        run: script/generate-licenses
-
       - name: Create Linux .tar.gz bundle
         run: script/bundle-linux
 
diff --git a/script/bundle-linux b/script/bundle-linux
index 711abf72fe..2fe4d8f51b 100755
--- a/script/bundle-linux
+++ b/script/bundle-linux
@@ -38,6 +38,9 @@ version_info=$(rustc --version --verbose)
 host_line=$(echo "$version_info" | grep host)
 target_triple=${host_line#*: }
 
+# Generate the licenses first, so they can be baked into the binaries
+script/generate-licenses
+
 # Build binary in release mode
 export RUSTFLAGS="-C link-args=-Wl,--disable-new-dtags,-rpath,\$ORIGIN/../lib"
 cargo build --release --target "${target_triple}" --package zed --package cli
@@ -97,8 +100,7 @@ fi
 mkdir -p "${zed_dir}/share/applications"
 envsubst < "crates/zed/resources/zed.desktop.in" > "${zed_dir}/share/applications/zed$suffix.desktop"
 
-# Licenses
-script/generate-licenses
+# Copy generated licenses so they'll end up in archive too
 cp "assets/licenses.md" "${zed_dir}/licenses.md"
 
 # Create archive out of everything that's in the temp directory