diff --git a/src/Microsoft.Blazor.Browser.JS/src/Rendering/RenderTreeNode.ts b/src/Microsoft.Blazor.Browser.JS/src/Rendering/RenderTreeNode.ts
index 9ef3d50dcd..36f227edac 100644
--- a/src/Microsoft.Blazor.Browser.JS/src/Rendering/RenderTreeNode.ts
+++ b/src/Microsoft.Blazor.Browser.JS/src/Rendering/RenderTreeNode.ts
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 import { System_String, System_Array, Pointer } from '../Platform/Platform';
 import { platform } from '../Environment';
-const renderTreeNodeStructLength = 36;
+const renderTreeNodeStructLength = 40;
 
 // To minimise GC pressure, instead of instantiating a JS object to represent each tree node,
 // we work in terms of pointers to the structs on the .NET heap, and use static functions that
@@ -19,8 +19,8 @@ export const renderTreeNode = {
   attributeName: (node: RenderTreeNodePointer) => platform.readStringField(node, 16),
   attributeValue: (node: RenderTreeNodePointer) => platform.readStringField(node, 20),
   attributeEventHandlerValue: (node: RenderTreeNodePointer) => platform.readObjectField(node, 24),
-  componentId: (node: RenderTreeNodePointer) => platform.readInt32Field(node, 28),
-  component: (node: RenderTreeNodePointer) => platform.readObjectField(node, 32),
+  componentId: (node: RenderTreeNodePointer) => platform.readInt32Field(node, 32),
+  component: (node: RenderTreeNodePointer) => platform.readObjectField(node, 36),
 };
 
 export enum NodeType {
diff --git a/src/Microsoft.Blazor/RenderTree/RenderTreeBuilder.cs b/src/Microsoft.Blazor/RenderTree/RenderTreeBuilder.cs
index e7b2494fbd..15f8a3098d 100644
--- a/src/Microsoft.Blazor/RenderTree/RenderTreeBuilder.cs
+++ b/src/Microsoft.Blazor/RenderTree/RenderTreeBuilder.cs
@@ -124,16 +124,7 @@ namespace Microsoft.Blazor.RenderTree
         /// </summary>
         /// <typeparam name="TComponent">The type of the child component.</typeparam>
         public void AddComponent<TComponent>() where TComponent: IComponent
-        {
-            // Later, instead of instantiating the child component here, we'll instead
-            // store a descriptor of the component (type, parameters) on the attributes
-            // of the appended nodes. Then after the tree is diffed against the
-            // previous tree, we'll either instantiate a new component or reuse the
-            // existing instance (and notify it about changes to parameters).
-            var instance = Activator.CreateInstance<TComponent>();
-            var instanceId = _renderer.AssignComponentId(instance);
-            Append(RenderTreeNode.ChildComponent(instanceId, instance));
-        }
+            => Append(RenderTreeNode.ChildComponent<TComponent>());
 
         private void AssertCanAddAttribute()
         {
diff --git a/src/Microsoft.Blazor/RenderTree/RenderTreeNode.cs b/src/Microsoft.Blazor/RenderTree/RenderTreeNode.cs
index cb6f55f8bb..a91865af43 100644
--- a/src/Microsoft.Blazor/RenderTree/RenderTreeNode.cs
+++ b/src/Microsoft.Blazor/RenderTree/RenderTreeNode.cs
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 // Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0. See License.txt in the project root for license information.
 
 using Microsoft.Blazor.Components;
+using System;
 
 namespace Microsoft.Blazor.RenderTree
 {
@@ -56,6 +57,12 @@ namespace Microsoft.Blazor.RenderTree
         /// </summary>
         public UIEventHandler AttributeEventHandlerValue { get; private set; }
 
+        /// <summary>
+        /// If the <see cref="NodeType"/> property equals <see cref="RenderTreeNodeType.Component"/>,
+        /// gets the type of the child component.
+        /// </summary>
+        public Type ComponentType { get; private set; }
+
         /// <summary>
         /// If the <see cref="NodeType"/> property equals <see cref="RenderTreeNodeType.Component"/>,
         /// gets the child component instance identifier.
@@ -94,16 +101,21 @@ namespace Microsoft.Blazor.RenderTree
             AttributeEventHandlerValue = value
         };
 
-        internal static RenderTreeNode ChildComponent(int componentId, IComponent component) => new RenderTreeNode
+        internal static RenderTreeNode ChildComponent<T>() where T: IComponent => new RenderTreeNode
         {
             NodeType = RenderTreeNodeType.Component,
-            ComponentId = componentId,
-            Component = component
+            ComponentType = typeof(T)
         };
 
         internal void CloseElement(int descendantsEndIndex)
         {
             ElementDescendantsEndIndex = descendantsEndIndex;
         }
+
+        internal void SetChildComponentInstance(int componentId, IComponent component)
+        {
+            ComponentId = componentId;
+            Component = component;
+        }
     }
 }
diff --git a/src/Microsoft.Blazor/Rendering/ComponentState.cs b/src/Microsoft.Blazor/Rendering/ComponentState.cs
index e5826d8180..ccbebab4da 100644
--- a/src/Microsoft.Blazor/Rendering/ComponentState.cs
+++ b/src/Microsoft.Blazor/Rendering/ComponentState.cs
@@ -43,9 +43,27 @@ namespace Microsoft.Blazor.Rendering
             _component.BuildRenderTree(_renderTreeBuilder);
 
             var renderTree = _renderTreeBuilder.GetNodes();
+            EnsureChildComponentsInstantiated(renderTree);
             _renderer.UpdateDisplay(_componentId, renderTree);
         }
 
+        private void EnsureChildComponentsInstantiated(ArraySegment<RenderTreeNode> renderTree)
+        {
+            var array = renderTree.Array;
+            var offsetPlusCount = renderTree.Offset + renderTree.Count;
+            for (var i = renderTree.Offset; i < offsetPlusCount; i++)
+            {
+                if (array[i].NodeType == RenderTreeNodeType.Component
+                    && array[i].Component == null)
+                {
+                    var instance = (IComponent)Activator.CreateInstance(array[i].ComponentType);
+                    array[i].SetChildComponentInstance(
+                        _renderer.AssignComponentId(instance),
+                        instance);
+                }
+            }
+        }
+
         /// <summary>
         /// Invokes the handler corresponding to an event.
         /// </summary>
diff --git a/test/shared/AssertNode.cs b/test/shared/AssertNode.cs
index cdd9d27735..683889d82e 100644
--- a/test/shared/AssertNode.cs
+++ b/test/shared/AssertNode.cs
@@ -44,13 +44,7 @@ namespace Microsoft.Blazor.Test.Shared
         public static void Component<T>(RenderTreeNode node) where T : IComponent
         {
             Assert.Equal(RenderTreeNodeType.Component, node.NodeType);
-
-            // Currently, we instantiate child components during the tree building phase.
-            // Later this will change so it happens during the tree diffing phase, so this
-            // logic will need to change. It will need to verify that we're tracking the
-            // information needed to instantiate the component.
-            Assert.NotNull(node.Component);
-            Assert.IsType<T>(node.Component);
+            Assert.Equal(typeof(T), node.ComponentType);
         }
     }
 }