diff --git a/packages/angular_devkit/build_angular/src/builders/application/tests/behavior/typescript-rebuild-touch-file_spec.ts b/packages/angular_devkit/build_angular/src/builders/application/tests/behavior/typescript-rebuild-touch-file_spec.ts
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..9f8be3d82f38
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/angular_devkit/build_angular/src/builders/application/tests/behavior/typescript-rebuild-touch-file_spec.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,52 @@
+/**
+ * @license
+ * Copyright Google LLC All Rights Reserved.
+ *
+ * Use of this source code is governed by an MIT-style license that can be
+ * found in the LICENSE file at https://angular.io/license
+ */
+
+import { concatMap, count, take, timeout } from 'rxjs';
+import { buildApplication } from '../../index';
+import { APPLICATION_BUILDER_INFO, BASE_OPTIONS, describeBuilder } from '../setup';
+
+describeBuilder(buildApplication, APPLICATION_BUILDER_INFO, (harness) => {
+  describe('Behavior: "Rebuilds when touching file"', () => {
+    for (const aot of [true, false]) {
+      it(`Rebuild correctly when file is touched with ${aot ? 'AOT' : 'JIT'}`, async () => {
+        harness.useTarget('build', {
+          ...BASE_OPTIONS,
+          watch: true,
+          aot,
+        });
+
+        const buildCount = await harness
+          .execute({ outputLogsOnFailure: false })
+          .pipe(
+            timeout(30_000),
+            concatMap(async ({ result }, index) => {
+              switch (index) {
+                case 0:
+                  expect(result?.success).toBeTrue();
+                  // Touch a file without doing any changes.
+                  await harness.modifyFile('src/app/app.component.ts', (content) => content);
+                  break;
+                case 1:
+                  expect(result?.success).toBeTrue();
+                  await harness.removeFile('src/app/app.component.ts');
+                  break;
+                case 2:
+                  expect(result?.success).toBeFalse();
+                  break;
+              }
+            }),
+            take(3),
+            count(),
+          )
+          .toPromise();
+
+        expect(buildCount).toBe(3);
+      });
+    }
+  });
+});
diff --git a/packages/angular_devkit/build_angular/src/tools/esbuild/angular/source-file-cache.ts b/packages/angular_devkit/build_angular/src/tools/esbuild/angular/source-file-cache.ts
index 032ebc988c9c..1bc08aeee54a 100644
--- a/packages/angular_devkit/build_angular/src/tools/esbuild/angular/source-file-cache.ts
+++ b/packages/angular_devkit/build_angular/src/tools/esbuild/angular/source-file-cache.ts
@@ -31,7 +31,6 @@ export class SourceFileCache extends Map<string, ts.SourceFile> {
     }
     for (let file of files) {
       file = path.normalize(file);
-      this.typeScriptFileCache.delete(file);
       this.loadResultCache.invalidate(file);
 
       // Normalize separators to allow matching TypeScript Host paths