diff --git a/meta/lib/oeqa/selftest/cases/rust.py b/meta/lib/oeqa/selftest/cases/rust.py
index 06acf53e9a..31222e2456 100644
--- a/meta/lib/oeqa/selftest/cases/rust.py
+++ b/meta/lib/oeqa/selftest/cases/rust.py
@@ -122,6 +122,9 @@ class RustSelfTestSystemEmulated(OESelftestTestCase, OEPTestResultTestCase):
             cmd = "export TARGET_VENDOR=\"-poky\";"
             cmd = cmd + " export PATH=%s/recipe-sysroot-native/usr/bin/python3-native:%s/recipe-sysroot-native/usr/bin:%s/recipe-sysroot-native/usr/bin/%s:%s/hosttools:$PATH;" % (rustlibpath, rustlibpath, rustlibpath, tcpath, tmpdir)
             cmd = cmd + " export RUST_TARGET_PATH=%s/rust-targets;" % rustlibpath
+            # Strip debug symbols from test binaries to reduce size (300+ MB -> ~140 MB)
+            # PowerPC mac99 QEMU has 768MB RAM limit, so we need to minimize test binary sizes
+            cmd = cmd + " export RUSTFLAGS='-C strip=debuginfo';"
             # Trigger testing.
             cmd = cmd + " export TEST_DEVICE_ADDR=\"%s:12345\";" % qemu.ip
             cmd = cmd + " cd %s; python3 src/bootstrap/bootstrap.py test %s --target %s" % (builddir, testargs, targetsys)