diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
index a9abad0671e..726eacf8ea6 100644
--- a/CHANGES
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -19,6 +19,8 @@ Bugs fixed
 * #8164: autodoc: Classes that inherit mocked class are not documented
 * #8602: autodoc: The ``autodoc-process-docstring`` event is emitted to the
   non-datadescriptors unexpectedly
+* #8616: autodoc: AttributeError is raised on non-class object is passed to
+  autoclass directive
 
 Testing
 --------
diff --git a/sphinx/ext/autodoc/__init__.py b/sphinx/ext/autodoc/__init__.py
index 4429a2516b3..b481cf25435 100644
--- a/sphinx/ext/autodoc/__init__.py
+++ b/sphinx/ext/autodoc/__init__.py
@@ -1662,7 +1662,11 @@ def get_doc(self, encoding: str = None, ignore: int = None) -> List[List[str]]:
     def add_content(self, more_content: Optional[StringList], no_docstring: bool = False
                     ) -> None:
         if self.doc_as_attr:
-            more_content = StringList([_('alias of %s') % restify(self.object)], source='')
+            try:
+                more_content = StringList([_('alias of %s') % restify(self.object)], source='')
+            except AttributeError:
+                pass  # Invalid class object is passed.
+
             super().add_content(more_content, no_docstring=True)
         else:
             super().add_content(more_content)