diff --git a/.gitmodules b/.gitmodules
index e40c3362830..1619401d70c 100644
--- a/.gitmodules
+++ b/.gitmodules
@@ -43,9 +43,6 @@
 [submodule "third_party/protoc-gen-validate"]
 	path = third_party/protoc-gen-validate
 	url = https://github.com/envoyproxy/protoc-gen-validate.git
-[submodule "third_party/upb"]
-	path = third_party/upb
-	url = https://github.com/protocolbuffers/upb.git
 [submodule "third_party/udpa"]
 	path = third_party/udpa
 	url = https://github.com/cncf/udpa.git
diff --git a/third_party/upb b/third_party/upb
deleted file mode 160000
index 9effcbcb27f..00000000000
--- a/third_party/upb
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-Subproject commit 9effcbcb27f0a665f9f345030188c0b291e32482
diff --git a/tools/run_tests/sanity/check_submodules.sh b/tools/run_tests/sanity/check_submodules.sh
index 7994b20ea14..ef04c0de3ec 100755
--- a/tools/run_tests/sanity/check_submodules.sh
+++ b/tools/run_tests/sanity/check_submodules.sh
@@ -39,7 +39,6 @@ cat << EOF | awk '{ print $1 }' | sort > "$want_submodules"
  09745575a923640154bcf307fba8aedff47f240a third_party/protobuf (v3.7.0-rc.2-247-g09745575)
  e143189bf6f37b3957fb31743df6a1bcf4a8c685 third_party/protoc-gen-validate (v0.0.10)
  94324803a497c8f76dbc78df393ef629d3a9f3c3 third_party/udpa (heads/master)
- 9effcbcb27f0a665f9f345030188c0b291e32482 third_party/upb (heads/master)
  cacf7f1d4e3d44d871b605da3b647f07d718623f third_party/zlib (v1.2.11)
 EOF