diff --git a/tools/cldr/cldr-to-icu/src/main/java/org/unicode/icu/tool/cldrtoicu/ant/ConvertIcuDataTask.java b/tools/cldr/cldr-to-icu/src/main/java/org/unicode/icu/tool/cldrtoicu/ant/ConvertIcuDataTask.java
index d3e9f74db92..046b188fa7c 100644
--- a/tools/cldr/cldr-to-icu/src/main/java/org/unicode/icu/tool/cldrtoicu/ant/ConvertIcuDataTask.java
+++ b/tools/cldr/cldr-to-icu/src/main/java/org/unicode/icu/tool/cldrtoicu/ant/ConvertIcuDataTask.java
@@ -30,6 +30,7 @@ import org.apache.tools.ant.Task;
 import org.unicode.cldr.api.CldrDataSupplier;
 import org.unicode.cldr.api.CldrDraftStatus;
 import org.unicode.cldr.api.CldrPath;
+import org.unicode.cldr.util.CLDRConfig;
 import org.unicode.icu.tool.cldrtoicu.AlternateLocaleData;
 import org.unicode.icu.tool.cldrtoicu.IcuConverterConfig;
 import org.unicode.icu.tool.cldrtoicu.LdmlConverter;
@@ -305,6 +306,10 @@ public final class ConvertIcuDataTask extends Task {
 
     @SuppressWarnings("unused")
     public void execute() throws BuildException {
+        // Spin up CLDRConfig outside of other inner loops, to
+        // avoid static init problems seen in CLDR-14636
+        CLDRConfig.getInstance().getSupplementalDataInfo();
+
         checkBuild(localeIds != null, "<localeIds> must be specified");
 
         CldrDataSupplier src = CldrDataSupplier