diff --git a/universal-profiling-integration/src/main/java/co/elastic/otel/UniversalProfilingProcessorAutoConfig.java b/universal-profiling-integration/src/main/java/co/elastic/otel/UniversalProfilingProcessorAutoConfig.java
index aebb6300..f3aa1e55 100644
--- a/universal-profiling-integration/src/main/java/co/elastic/otel/UniversalProfilingProcessorAutoConfig.java
+++ b/universal-profiling-integration/src/main/java/co/elastic/otel/UniversalProfilingProcessorAutoConfig.java
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@
 import io.opentelemetry.sdk.autoconfigure.spi.ConfigProperties;
 import io.opentelemetry.sdk.resources.Resource;
 import io.opentelemetry.semconv.ResourceAttributes;
+import java.util.logging.Level;
 import java.util.logging.Logger;
 
 @AutoService(ChainingSpanProcessorAutoConfiguration.class)
@@ -69,12 +70,20 @@ public void registerSpanProcessors(
     PropertiesApplier props = new PropertiesApplier(properties);
     registerer.register(
         next -> {
-          UniversalProfilingProcessorBuilder builder =
-              UniversalProfilingProcessor.builder(next, resource);
-          builder.delayActivationAfterProfilerRegistration(enabled == EnabledOptions.AUTO);
-          props.applyInt(BUFFER_SIZE_OPTION, builder::bufferSize);
-          props.applyString(SOCKET_DIR_OPTION, builder::socketDir);
-          return builder.build();
+          try {
+            UniversalProfilingProcessorBuilder builder =
+                UniversalProfilingProcessor.builder(next, resource);
+            builder.delayActivationAfterProfilerRegistration(enabled == EnabledOptions.AUTO);
+            props.applyInt(BUFFER_SIZE_OPTION, builder::bufferSize);
+            props.applyString(SOCKET_DIR_OPTION, builder::socketDir);
+            return builder.build();
+          } catch (Exception e) {
+            logger.log(
+                Level.SEVERE,
+                "Failed to initialize universal profiling integration, the feature won't work",
+                e);
+            return next;
+          }
         });
   }
 }
diff --git a/universal-profiling-integration/src/test/java/co/elastic/otel/UniversalProfilingProcessorAutoConfigTest.java b/universal-profiling-integration/src/test/java/co/elastic/otel/UniversalProfilingProcessorAutoConfigTest.java
index ef78b475..0f159810 100644
--- a/universal-profiling-integration/src/test/java/co/elastic/otel/UniversalProfilingProcessorAutoConfigTest.java
+++ b/universal-profiling-integration/src/test/java/co/elastic/otel/UniversalProfilingProcessorAutoConfigTest.java
@@ -86,9 +86,6 @@ public void testAllSettings(@TempDir Path tempDir) {
             .put(SOCKET_DIR_OPTION, tempDirAbs)) {
       OpenTelemetry otel = GlobalOpenTelemetry.get();
       List<SpanProcessor> processors = OtelReflectionUtils.getSpanProcessors(otel);
-      assertThat(processors)
-          .filteredOn(proc -> proc instanceof UniversalProfilingProcessor)
-          .hasSize(1);
       UniversalProfilingProcessor processor =
           (UniversalProfilingProcessor)
               processors.stream()
@@ -101,4 +98,26 @@ public void testAllSettings(@TempDir Path tempDir) {
       assertThat(processor.correlator.delayedSpans.getBufferSize()).isEqualTo(256);
     }
   }
+
+  @Test
+  public void testFailureDoesNotCrashAutoConfig() {
+    String badSockerPath = "";
+    for (int i = 0; i < 1000; i++) {
+      badSockerPath += "abc";
+    }
+
+    try (AutoConfigTestProperties props =
+        new AutoConfigTestProperties()
+            .put("otel.service.name", "myservice")
+            .put(ENABLED_OPTION, "true")
+            .put(SOCKET_DIR_OPTION, badSockerPath)) {
+
+      OpenTelemetry otel = GlobalOpenTelemetry.get();
+      List<SpanProcessor> processors = OtelReflectionUtils.getSpanProcessors(otel);
+      assertThat(processors).isNotEmpty();
+      assertThat(processors)
+          .filteredOn(proc -> proc instanceof UniversalProfilingProcessor)
+          .hasSize(0);
+    }
+  }
 }