diff --git a/include/xo/jit/IrPipeline.hpp b/include/xo/jit/IrPipeline.hpp
index 7efd5b4f..60473bc5 100644
--- a/include/xo/jit/IrPipeline.hpp
+++ b/include/xo/jit/IrPipeline.hpp
@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@
 #include "llvm/Transforms/InstCombine/InstCombine.h"
 #include "llvm/Transforms/Scalar.h"
 #include "llvm/Transforms/Scalar/GVN.h"
+#include "llvm/Transforms/Utils/Mem2Reg.h"
 #include "llvm/Transforms/Scalar/Reassociate.h"
 #include "llvm/Transforms/Scalar/SimplifyCFG.h"
 
diff --git a/src/jit/IrPipeline.cpp b/src/jit/IrPipeline.cpp
index d08d9639..285edbe3 100644
--- a/src/jit/IrPipeline.cpp
+++ b/src/jit/IrPipeline.cpp
@@ -24,6 +24,13 @@ namespace xo {
 
             /** transform passes **/
             this->llvm_fpmgr_->addPass(llvm::InstCombinePass());
+
+            /* NOTE: llvm 19 adds mem2reg transform here.
+             *       speculating that PromotePass() does same/goodenough thing in llvm 18.
+             *       This pays off,  works first try!
+             */
+            this->llvm_fpmgr_->addPass(llvm::PromotePass());
+
             this->llvm_fpmgr_->addPass(llvm::ReassociatePass());
             this->llvm_fpmgr_->addPass(llvm::GVNPass());
             this->llvm_fpmgr_->addPass(llvm::SimplifyCFGPass());