diff --git a/openshift-kube-apiserver/admission/autoscaling/managementcpusoverride/admission.go b/openshift-kube-apiserver/admission/autoscaling/managementcpusoverride/admission.go
index 9bf0a1f8a1cfa..2895cbd1be410 100644
--- a/openshift-kube-apiserver/admission/autoscaling/managementcpusoverride/admission.go
+++ b/openshift-kube-apiserver/admission/autoscaling/managementcpusoverride/admission.go
@@ -192,9 +192,11 @@ func (a *managementCPUsOverride) Admit(ctx context.Context, attr admission.Attri
 		return admission.NewForbidden(attr, err) // can happen due to informer latency
 	}
 
-	// we still need to have nodes under the cluster to decide if the management resource enabled or not
+	// if the cluster has no nodes yet (e.g. during bootstrap), we cannot determine whether
+	// CPU partitioning is enabled — allow the pod without mutation rather than blocking it,
+	// which would prevent the machine-approver from starting and create a deadlock.
 	if len(nodes) == 0 {
-		return admission.NewForbidden(attr, fmt.Errorf("%s the cluster does not have any nodes", PluginName))
+		return nil
 	}
 
 	clusterInfra, err := a.infraConfigLister.Get(infraClusterName)
diff --git a/openshift-kube-apiserver/admission/autoscaling/managementcpusoverride/admission_test.go b/openshift-kube-apiserver/admission/autoscaling/managementcpusoverride/admission_test.go
index 9564bffe39578..a06304a31e10a 100644
--- a/openshift-kube-apiserver/admission/autoscaling/managementcpusoverride/admission_test.go
+++ b/openshift-kube-apiserver/admission/autoscaling/managementcpusoverride/admission_test.go
@@ -268,13 +268,12 @@ func TestAdmit(t *testing.T) {
 			infra:              testClusterInfraWithoutWorkloadPartitioning(),
 		},
 		{
-			name:               "should return admission error when the cluster does not have any nodes",
+			name:               "should allow pod without mutation when the cluster does not have any nodes",
 			pod:                testManagedPod("500m", "250m", "500Mi", "250Mi"),
 			expectedCpuRequest: resource.MustParse("250m"),
 			namespace:          testManagedNamespace(),
 			nodes:              []*corev1.Node{},
 			infra:              testClusterSNOInfra(),
-			expectedError:      fmt.Errorf("the cluster does not have any nodes"),
 		},
 	}