diff --git a/src/fromager/downloads.py b/src/fromager/downloads.py
index 82dd7b8d..e6ffa28a 100644
--- a/src/fromager/downloads.py
+++ b/src/fromager/downloads.py
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 import logging
 import os
 import pathlib
+import stat
 import tarfile
 import tempfile
 import typing
@@ -81,6 +82,14 @@ def _download_with_retry() -> pathlib.Path:
                 for chunk in r.iter_content(chunk_size=64 * 1024):
                     if chunk:
                         tmp.write(chunk)
+            # NamedTemporaryFile creates files with mode 0o600. Widen to
+            # 0o644 so external wheel servers (e.g. nginx) running as a
+            # different user can read the file.  Using fchmod before
+            # close+rename avoids a window where the final path exists
+            # with overly restrictive permissions.
+            os.fchmod(
+                tmp.fileno(), stat.S_IRUSR | stat.S_IWUSR | stat.S_IRGRP | stat.S_IROTH
+            )
             tmp.close()
             # Atomic rename on the same filesystem
             os.rename(temp_path, outfile)
diff --git a/tests/test_downloads.py b/tests/test_downloads.py
index 27ad1d97..94053ae5 100644
--- a/tests/test_downloads.py
+++ b/tests/test_downloads.py
@@ -1,7 +1,9 @@
 from __future__ import annotations
 
 import io
+import os
 import pathlib
+import stat
 import tarfile
 import typing
 import zipfile
@@ -72,6 +74,16 @@ def test_download_url_creates_parent_dirs(
     assert download_url(destination_dir=tmp_path / "a" / "b", url=_PKG_URL).exists()
 
 
+def test_download_url_world_readable(
+    requests_mock: requests_mock.Mocker, tmp_path: pathlib.Path
+) -> None:
+    """Downloaded files must be readable by other users (e.g. nginx)."""
+    requests_mock.get(_PKG_URL, content=b"data")
+    result = download_url(destination_dir=tmp_path, url=_PKG_URL)
+    mode = stat.S_IMODE(os.stat(result).st_mode)
+    assert mode == 0o644, f"expected 0o644, got {oct(mode)}"
+
+
 def test_download_url_cleans_up_on_failure(
     requests_mock: requests_mock.Mocker, tmp_path: pathlib.Path
 ) -> None: