diff --git a/nemo/lightning/pytorch/strategies/megatron_strategy.py b/nemo/lightning/pytorch/strategies/megatron_strategy.py
index 419e2b84f72e..db188c43a7cd 100755
--- a/nemo/lightning/pytorch/strategies/megatron_strategy.py
+++ b/nemo/lightning/pytorch/strategies/megatron_strategy.py
@@ -195,7 +195,7 @@ class MegatronStrategy(DDPStrategy, io.IOMixin):
         save_ckpt_format (str): Distributed checkpoint format to use for checkpoint saving. Should be one of
             'torch_dist' or 'zarr'. Defaults to 'torch_dist'.
         ckpt_async_save (bool): Whether to save checkpoints asynchronously to reduce checkpointing overhead.
-            Defaults to True.
+            Defaults to False.
         ckpt_torch_dist_multiproc (int): Number of extra processes per rank used during ckpt save
             with PyTorch distributed format. Defaults to None.
         ckpt_assume_constant_structure (bool): Allows caching some computation across checkpoint saves.
@@ -292,7 +292,7 @@ def __init__(
         use_te_rng_tracker: bool = False,
         use_sharp: bool = False,
         save_ckpt_format: str = "torch_dist",
-        ckpt_async_save: bool = True,
+        ckpt_async_save: bool = False,
         ckpt_torch_dist_multiproc: int = None,  ## TODO(ashors): put elsewhere?
         ckpt_assume_constant_structure: bool = False,
         ckpt_parallel_save: bool = True,
diff --git a/nemo/lightning/pytorch/strategies/utils.py b/nemo/lightning/pytorch/strategies/utils.py
index 3a3297414bbb..50b4f805433e 100755
--- a/nemo/lightning/pytorch/strategies/utils.py
+++ b/nemo/lightning/pytorch/strategies/utils.py
@@ -210,7 +210,9 @@ def create_checkpoint_io(wrapping_ckpt_io=None, **kwargs):
 
     if wrapping_ckpt_io:
         checkpoint_io = wrapping_ckpt_io(checkpoint_io)
-    if kwargs.get("async_save", False):
+
+    async_save = kwargs.get("async_save", False)
+    if async_save:
         checkpoint_io = AsyncFinalizableCheckpointIO(checkpoint_io)
 
     return checkpoint_io
diff --git a/nemo/utils/callbacks/dist_ckpt_io.py b/nemo/utils/callbacks/dist_ckpt_io.py
index c7c74e98a655..411a45603c37 100644
--- a/nemo/utils/callbacks/dist_ckpt_io.py
+++ b/nemo/utils/callbacks/dist_ckpt_io.py
@@ -92,12 +92,16 @@ class AsyncFinalizableCheckpointIO(_WrappingCheckpointIO):
     AsyncCheckpointIO does). Allows to perform a (synchronous) finalization
     function after all ranks finish checkpoint saving.
 
+    This wrapper always creates the AsyncCallsQueue with persistent workers. This is known
+    to increase memory usage, and sometimes leads to out of memory errors.
+
     NOTE: for correctness, this plugin must be used together with the
     AsyncFinalizerCallback callback which performs the finalization checks.
 
     Args:
         checkpoint_io (CheckpointIO): wrapped checkpoint_io object. Must be
             of type AsyncCompatibleCheckpointIO.
+        persistent_workers (bool): whether to use persistent workers for checkpoint writing. Defaults to False.
     Requires the underlying checkpoint_io.save_checkpoint to return save_fn, save_args, finalize_fn.
     """
 
@@ -108,7 +112,7 @@ def __init__(self, checkpoint_io: AsyncCompatibleCheckpointIO) -> None:
             raise ValueError(f'Incompatible wrapped checkpoint_io type: {type(checkpoint_io)}')
 
         super().__init__(checkpoint_io)
-        self.async_calls_queue = AsyncCallsQueue()
+        self.async_calls_queue = AsyncCallsQueue(persistent=True)
 
     def save_checkpoint(
         self,
@@ -166,6 +170,7 @@ def teardown(self) -> None:
         if self.async_calls_queue.get_num_unfinalized_calls() > 0:
             # Can't do finalization now because some ranks might be lost
             logging.warning('Some async checkpoint saves might be not finalized properly.')
+        self.async_calls_queue.close()
 
 
 class AsyncFinalizerCallback(Callback):