diff --git a/src/main/java/com/fasterxml/jackson/core/io/BigDecimalParser.java b/src/main/java/com/fasterxml/jackson/core/io/BigDecimalParser.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..7e27d4fefd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/main/java/com/fasterxml/jackson/core/io/BigDecimalParser.java
@@ -0,0 +1,155 @@
+package com.fasterxml.jackson.core.io;
+
+import java.math.BigDecimal;
+
+// Based on a great idea of Eric Obermühlner to use a tree of smaller BigDecimals for parsing really big numbers
+// with O(n^1.5) complexity instead of O(n^2) when using the constructor for a decimal representation from JDK 8/11:
+// https://github.com/eobermuhlner/big-math/commit/7a5419aac8b2adba2aa700ccf00197f97b2ad89f
+public final class BigDecimalParser {
+
+    private final char[] chars;
+    private final int off;
+    private final int len;
+
+    BigDecimalParser(char[] chars, int off, int len) {
+        this.chars = chars;
+        this.off = off;
+        this.len = len;
+    }
+
+    BigDecimal parse() throws NumberFormatException {
+        try {
+            if (len < 500) {
+                return new BigDecimal(chars, off, len);
+            }
+
+            int splitLen = len / 10;
+            return parseBigDecimal(splitLen);
+
+        } catch (NumberFormatException e) {
+            String val = new String(chars, off, len);
+
+            throw new NumberFormatException("Value \"" + val + "\" can not be represented as BigDecimal."
+                    + " Reason: " + e.getMessage());
+        }
+    }
+
+    private BigDecimal parseBigDecimal(int splitLen) {
+        boolean numHasSign = false;
+        boolean expHasSign = false;
+        boolean neg = false;
+        int numIdx = 0;
+        int expIdx = -1;
+        int dotIdx = -1;
+        int scale = 0;
+
+        for (int i = off; i < len; i++) {
+            char c = chars[i];
+            switch (c) {
+            case '+':
+                if (expIdx >= 0) {
+                    if (expHasSign) {
+                        throw new NumberFormatException("Multiple signs in exponent");
+                    }
+                    expHasSign = true;
+                } else {
+                    if (numHasSign) {
+                        throw new NumberFormatException("Multiple signs in number");
+                    }
+                    numHasSign = true;
+                    numIdx = i + 1;
+                }
+                break;
+            case '-':
+                if (expIdx >= 0) {
+                    if (expHasSign) {
+                        throw new NumberFormatException("Multiple signs in exponent");
+                    }
+                    expHasSign = true;
+                } else {
+                    if (numHasSign) {
+                        throw new NumberFormatException("Multiple signs in number");
+                    }
+                    numHasSign = true;
+                    neg = true;
+                    numIdx = i + 1;
+                }
+                break;
+            case 'e':
+            case 'E':
+                if (expIdx >= 0) {
+                    throw new NumberFormatException("Multiple exponent markers");
+                }
+                expIdx = i;
+                break;
+            case '.':
+                if (dotIdx >= 0) {
+                    throw new NumberFormatException("Multiple decimal points");
+                }
+                dotIdx = i;
+                break;
+            default:
+                if (dotIdx >= 0 && expIdx == -1) {
+                    scale++;
+                }
+            }
+        }
+
+        int numEndIdx;
+        int exp = 0;
+        if (expIdx >= 0) {
+            numEndIdx = expIdx;
+            String expStr = new String(chars, expIdx + 1, len - expIdx - 1);
+            exp = Integer.parseInt(expStr);
+            scale = adjustScale(scale, exp);
+        } else {
+            numEndIdx = len;
+        }
+
+        BigDecimal res;
+
+        if (dotIdx >= 0) {
+            int leftLen = dotIdx - numIdx;
+            BigDecimal left = toBigDecimalRec(numIdx, leftLen, exp, splitLen);
+
+            int rightLen = numEndIdx - dotIdx - 1;
+            BigDecimal right = toBigDecimalRec(dotIdx + 1, rightLen, exp - rightLen, splitLen);
+
+            res = left.add(right);
+        } else {
+            res = toBigDecimalRec(numIdx, numEndIdx - numIdx, exp, splitLen);
+        }
+
+        if (scale != 0) {
+            res = res.setScale(scale);
+        }
+
+        if (neg) {
+            res = res.negate();
+        }
+
+        return res;
+    }
+
+    private int adjustScale(int scale, long exp) {
+        long adjScale = scale - exp;
+        if (adjScale > Integer.MAX_VALUE || adjScale < Integer.MIN_VALUE) {
+            throw new NumberFormatException(
+                    "Scale out of range: " + adjScale + " while adjusting scale " + scale + " to exponent " + exp);
+        }
+
+        return (int) adjScale;
+    }
+
+    private BigDecimal toBigDecimalRec(int off, int len, int scale, int splitLen) {
+        if (len > splitLen) {
+            int mid = len / 2;
+            BigDecimal left = toBigDecimalRec(off, mid, scale + len - mid, splitLen);
+            BigDecimal right = toBigDecimalRec(off + mid, len - mid, scale, splitLen);
+
+            return left.add(right);
+        }
+
+        return len == 0 ? BigDecimal.ZERO : new BigDecimal(chars, off, len).movePointRight(scale);
+    }
+}
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/fasterxml/jackson/core/io/NumberInput.java b/src/main/java/com/fasterxml/jackson/core/io/NumberInput.java
index a93236bd72..c929fcf2f7 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/fasterxml/jackson/core/io/NumberInput.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/fasterxml/jackson/core/io/NumberInput.java
@@ -311,22 +311,18 @@ public static double parseDouble(String s) throws NumberFormatException {
     }
 
     public static BigDecimal parseBigDecimal(String s) throws NumberFormatException {
-        try { return new BigDecimal(s); } catch (NumberFormatException e) {
-            throw _badBD(s);
-        }
-    }
+        char[] ch = s.toCharArray();
 
-    public static BigDecimal parseBigDecimal(char[] b) throws NumberFormatException {
-        return parseBigDecimal(b, 0, b.length);
+        return parseBigDecimal(ch);
     }
-    
-    public static BigDecimal parseBigDecimal(char[] b, int off, int len) throws NumberFormatException {
-        try { return new BigDecimal(b, off, len); } catch (NumberFormatException e) {
-            throw _badBD(new String(b, off, len));
-        }
+
+    public static BigDecimal parseBigDecimal(char[] ch) throws NumberFormatException {
+        return parseBigDecimal(ch, 0, ch.length);
     }
 
-    private static NumberFormatException _badBD(String s) {
-        return new NumberFormatException("Value \""+s+"\" can not be represented as BigDecimal");
+    public static BigDecimal parseBigDecimal(char[] ch, int off, int len) throws NumberFormatException {
+        BigDecimalParser parser = new BigDecimalParser(ch, off, len);
+
+        return parser.parse();
     }
 }
diff --git a/src/test/java/com/fasterxml/jackson/core/util/TestTextBuffer.java b/src/test/java/com/fasterxml/jackson/core/util/TestTextBuffer.java
index a4e0243aec..f7eb410f02 100644
--- a/src/test/java/com/fasterxml/jackson/core/util/TestTextBuffer.java
+++ b/src/test/java/com/fasterxml/jackson/core/util/TestTextBuffer.java
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 package com.fasterxml.jackson.core.util;
 
-import com.fasterxml.jackson.core.io.NumberInput;
+import com.fasterxml.jackson.core.io.BigDecimalParser;
 
 public class TestTextBuffer
     extends com.fasterxml.jackson.core.BaseTest
@@ -139,7 +139,7 @@ public void testContentsAsDecimalThrowsNumberFormatException() {
             textBuffer.contentsAsDecimal();
             fail("Expecting exception: NumberFormatException");
         } catch(NumberFormatException e) {
-            assertEquals(NumberInput.class.getName(), e.getStackTrace()[0].getClassName());
+            assertEquals(BigDecimalParser.class.getName(), e.getStackTrace()[0].getClassName());
         }
     }