diff --git a/packages/engine-core/src/library/DefaultLibraryLoader.ts b/packages/engine-core/src/library/DefaultLibraryLoader.ts
index adbf91f5fed0..1e3a0c761cbc 100644
--- a/packages/engine-core/src/library/DefaultLibraryLoader.ts
+++ b/packages/engine-core/src/library/DefaultLibraryLoader.ts
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ import type { Platform } from '@prisma/get-platform'
 import { getNodeAPIName, getPlatform, getPlatformWithOSResult } from '@prisma/get-platform'
 import chalk from 'chalk'
 import fs from 'fs'
+import os from 'os'
 import path from 'path'
 
 import { EngineConfig } from '../common/Engine'
@@ -16,9 +17,56 @@ import { Library, LibraryLoader } from './types/Library'
 
 const debug = Debug('prisma:client:libraryEngine:loader')
 
-export function load<T>(id: string): T {
-  // this require needs to be resolved at runtime, tell webpack to ignore it
-  return eval('require')(id) as T
+const libraryCacheSymbol = Symbol('PrismaLibraryEngineCache')
+
+type LibraryCache = Record<string, Library | undefined>
+
+type GlobalWithCache = typeof globalThis & {
+  [libraryCacheSymbol]?: LibraryCache
+}
+
+function getLibraryCache(): LibraryCache {
+  const globalWithCache = globalThis as GlobalWithCache
+  if (globalWithCache[libraryCacheSymbol] === undefined) {
+    globalWithCache[libraryCacheSymbol] = {}
+  }
+  return globalWithCache[libraryCacheSymbol]
+}
+
+export function load(libraryPath: string): Library {
+  const cache = getLibraryCache()
+
+  if (cache[libraryPath] !== undefined) {
+    return cache[libraryPath]!
+  }
+
+  // `toNamespacedPath` is required for native addons on Windows, but it's a no-op on other systems.
+  // We call it here unconditionally just like `.node` CommonJS loader in Node.js does.
+  const fullLibraryPath = path.toNamespacedPath(libraryPath)
+  const libraryModule = { exports: {} as Library }
+
+  let flags = 0
+
+  if (process.platform !== 'win32') {
+    // Add RTLD_LAZY and RTLD_DEEPBIND on Unix.
+    //
+    // RTLD_LAZY: this is what Node.js uses by default on all Unix-like systems
+    // if no flags were passed to dlopen from JavaScript side.
+    //
+    // RTLD_DEEPBIND: this is not a part of POSIX standard but a widely
+    // supported extension. It prevents issues when we dynamically link to
+    // system OpenSSL on Linux but the dynamic linker resolves the symbols from
+    // the Node.js binary instead.
+    //
+    // @ts-expect-error TODO: typings don't define dlopen -- needs to be fixed upstream
+    flags = os.constants.dlopen.RTLD_LAZY | os.constants.dlopen.RTLD_DEEPBIND
+  }
+
+  // @ts-expect-error TODO: typings don't define dlopen -- needs to be fixed upstream
+  process.dlopen(libraryModule, fullLibraryPath, flags)
+
+  cache[libraryPath] = libraryModule.exports
+  return libraryModule.exports
 }
 
 export class DefaultLibraryLoader implements LibraryLoader {