diff --git a/dandiapi/api/services/publish/__init__.py b/dandiapi/api/services/publish/__init__.py
index 048e0344f..b932479ed 100644
--- a/dandiapi/api/services/publish/__init__.py
+++ b/dandiapi/api/services/publish/__init__.py
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 from django.contrib.auth.models import User
 from django.db import transaction
 from django.db.models import QuerySet
+from more_itertools import ichunked
 
 from dandiapi.api import doi
 from dandiapi.api.asset_paths import add_version_asset_paths
@@ -83,17 +84,30 @@ def _publish_dandiset(dandiset_id: int) -> None:
 
         # Add a new many-to-many association directly to any already published assets
         already_published_assets: QuerySet[Asset] = old_version.assets.filter(published=True)
-        AssetVersions.objects.bulk_create(
-            AssetVersions(asset_id=asset_id, version_id=new_version.id)
-            for asset_id in already_published_assets.values_list('id', flat=True).iterator()
-        )
+
+        # Batch bulk creates to avoid blowing up memory when there are a lot of assets
+        for asset_ids_batch in ichunked(
+            already_published_assets.values_list('id', flat=True).iterator(), 5_000
+        ):
+            AssetVersions.objects.bulk_create(
+                [
+                    AssetVersions(asset_id=asset_id, version_id=new_version.id)
+                    for asset_id in asset_ids_batch
+                ]
+            )
 
         draft_assets: QuerySet[Asset] = old_version.assets.filter(published=False)
 
-        AssetVersions.objects.bulk_create(
-            AssetVersions(asset_id=asset.id, version_id=new_version.id)
-            for asset in draft_assets.iterator()
-        )
+        # Batch bulk creates to avoid blowing up memory when there are a lot of assets
+        for asset_ids_batch in ichunked(
+            draft_assets.values_list('id', flat=True).iterator(), 5_000
+        ):
+            AssetVersions.objects.bulk_create(
+                [
+                    AssetVersions(asset_id=asset_id, version_id=new_version.id)
+                    for asset_id in asset_ids_batch
+                ]
+            )
 
         # Publish any draft assets
         for draft_asset in draft_assets.iterator():
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index d46fd3aaa..04cdd6228 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -56,6 +56,7 @@
         'jsonschema',
         'pydantic',
         'boto3[s3]',
+        'more_itertools',
         # Production-only
         'django-composed-configuration[prod]>=0.22.0',
         # pin directly to a version since we're extending the private multipart interface