diff --git a/extensions/markdown-language-features/notebook/index.ts b/extensions/markdown-language-features/notebook/index.ts
index 2b6c893e3a13db..7bda590e9e34b3 100644
--- a/extensions/markdown-language-features/notebook/index.ts
+++ b/extensions/markdown-language-features/notebook/index.ts
@@ -3,8 +3,8 @@
  *  Licensed under the MIT License. See License.txt in the project root for license information.
  *--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------*/
 
-const MarkdownIt: typeof import('markdown-it') = require('markdown-it');
 import * as DOMPurify from 'dompurify';
+import MarkdownIt from 'markdown-it';
 import type * as MarkdownItToken from 'markdown-it/lib/token';
 import type { ActivationFunction } from 'vscode-notebook-renderer';
 
@@ -13,9 +13,15 @@ const sanitizerOptions: DOMPurify.Config = {
 };
 
 export const activate: ActivationFunction<void> = (ctx) => {
-	const markdownIt = new MarkdownIt({
+	const markdownIt: MarkdownIt = new MarkdownIt({
 		html: true,
 		linkify: true,
+		highlight: (str: string, lang?: string) => {
+			if (lang) {
+				return `<code class="vscode-code-block" data-vscode-code-block-lang="${markdownIt.utils.escapeHtml(lang)}">${markdownIt.utils.escapeHtml(str)}</code>`;
+			}
+			return `<code>${markdownIt.utils.escapeHtml(str)}</code>`;
+		}
 	});
 	markdownIt.linkify.set({ fuzzyLink: false });
 
diff --git a/extensions/markdown-language-features/notebook/tsconfig.json b/extensions/markdown-language-features/notebook/tsconfig.json
index b90051ec35d0a5..a94411a1e520c6 100644
--- a/extensions/markdown-language-features/notebook/tsconfig.json
+++ b/extensions/markdown-language-features/notebook/tsconfig.json
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
 		"outDir": "./dist/",
 		"jsx": "react",
 		"moduleResolution": "Node",
+		"allowSyntheticDefaultImports": true,
 		"module": "es2020",
 		"lib": [
 			"es2018",
diff --git a/src/vs/workbench/contrib/notebook/browser/view/renderers/backLayerWebView.ts b/src/vs/workbench/contrib/notebook/browser/view/renderers/backLayerWebView.ts
index a50277d830a1ce..d7fc86b2e6c081 100644
--- a/src/vs/workbench/contrib/notebook/browser/view/renderers/backLayerWebView.ts
+++ b/src/vs/workbench/contrib/notebook/browser/view/renderers/backLayerWebView.ts
@@ -15,6 +15,10 @@ import { isMacintosh, isWeb } from 'vs/base/common/platform';
 import { dirname, joinPath } from 'vs/base/common/resources';
 import { URI } from 'vs/base/common/uri';
 import * as UUID from 'vs/base/common/uuid';
+import { TokenizationRegistry } from 'vs/editor/common/modes';
+import { generateTokensCSSForColorMap } from 'vs/editor/common/modes/supports/tokenization';
+import { tokenizeToString } from 'vs/editor/common/modes/textToHtmlTokenizer';
+import { IModeService } from 'vs/editor/common/services/modeService';
 import * as nls from 'vs/nls';
 import { createAndFillInContextMenuActions } from 'vs/platform/actions/browser/menuEntryActionViewItem';
 import { IMenuService, MenuId } from 'vs/platform/actions/common/actions';
@@ -36,7 +40,7 @@ import { INotebookRendererInfo, RendererMessagingSpec } from 'vs/workbench/contr
 import { INotebookKernel } from 'vs/workbench/contrib/notebook/common/notebookKernelService';
 import { IScopedRendererMessaging } from 'vs/workbench/contrib/notebook/common/notebookRendererMessagingService';
 import { INotebookService } from 'vs/workbench/contrib/notebook/common/notebookService';
-import { IWebviewService, WebviewContentPurpose, IWebviewElement } from 'vs/workbench/contrib/webview/browser/webview';
+import { IWebviewElement, IWebviewService, WebviewContentPurpose } from 'vs/workbench/contrib/webview/browser/webview';
 import { IWorkbenchEnvironmentService } from 'vs/workbench/services/environment/common/environmentService';
 import { FromWebviewMessage, IAckOutputHeight, IClickedDataUrlMessage, IContentWidgetTopRequest, IControllerPreload, ICreationRequestMessage, IMarkupCellInitialization, ToWebviewMessage } from './webviewMessages';
 
@@ -131,6 +135,7 @@ export class BackLayerWebView<T extends ICommonCellInfo> extends Disposable {
 		@ITelemetryService private readonly telemetryService: ITelemetryService,
 		@IWorkspaceTrustManagementService private readonly workspaceTrustManagementService: IWorkspaceTrustManagementService,
 		@IConfigurationService private readonly configurationService: IConfigurationService,
+		@IModeService private readonly modeService: IModeService,
 	) {
 		super();
 
@@ -163,6 +168,13 @@ export class BackLayerWebView<T extends ICommonCellInfo> extends Disposable {
 				isTrusted: e,
 			});
 		}));
+
+		this._register(TokenizationRegistry.onDidChange(() => {
+			this._sendMessageToWebview({
+				type: 'tokenizedStylesChanged',
+				css: getTokenizationCss(),
+			});
+		}));
 	}
 
 	updateOptions(options: {
@@ -353,8 +365,8 @@ export class BackLayerWebView<T extends ICommonCellInfo> extends Disposable {
 					tbody th {
 						font-weight: normal;
 					}
-
 				</style>
+				<style id="vscode-tokenization-styles" nonce="${this.nonce}">${getTokenizationCss()}</style>
 			</head>
 			<body style="overflow: hidden;">
 				<script>
@@ -719,6 +731,27 @@ var requirejs = (function() {
 						if (cell instanceof MarkupCellViewModel) {
 							cell.renderedHtml = data.html;
 						}
+
+						for (const { id, value, lang } of data.codeBlocks) {
+							// The language id may be a language aliases (e.g.js instead of javascript)
+							const languageId = this.modeService.getModeIdForLanguageName(lang);
+							if (!languageId) {
+								continue;
+							}
+
+							this.modeService.triggerMode(languageId);
+							TokenizationRegistry.getPromise(languageId)?.then(tokenization => {
+								if (this._disposed) {
+									return;
+								}
+								const html = tokenizeToString(value, this.modeService.languageIdCodec, tokenization);
+								this._sendMessageToWebview({
+									type: 'tokenizedCodeBlock',
+									html,
+									codeBlockId: id
+								});
+							});
+						}
 						break;
 					}
 				case 'telemetryFoundRenderedMarkdownMath':
@@ -1282,3 +1315,10 @@ var requirejs = (function() {
 		super.dispose();
 	}
 }
+
+function getTokenizationCss() {
+	const colorMap = TokenizationRegistry.getColorMap();
+	const tokenizationCss = colorMap ? generateTokensCSSForColorMap(colorMap) : '';
+	return tokenizationCss;
+}
+
diff --git a/src/vs/workbench/contrib/notebook/browser/view/renderers/webviewMessages.ts b/src/vs/workbench/contrib/notebook/browser/view/renderers/webviewMessages.ts
index ffeae87ff9d846..edc8222bd420d4 100644
--- a/src/vs/workbench/contrib/notebook/browser/view/renderers/webviewMessages.ts
+++ b/src/vs/workbench/contrib/notebook/browser/view/renderers/webviewMessages.ts
@@ -138,6 +138,11 @@ export interface IRenderedMarkupMessage extends BaseToWebviewMessage {
 	readonly type: 'renderedMarkup';
 	readonly cellId: string;
 	readonly html: string;
+	readonly codeBlocks: ReadonlyArray<{
+		readonly id: string;
+		readonly value: string;
+		readonly lang: string;
+	}>;
 }
 
 export interface ITelemetryFoundRenderedMarkdownMath extends BaseToWebviewMessage {
@@ -338,6 +343,16 @@ export interface INotebookUpdateWorkspaceTrust {
 	readonly type: 'updateWorkspaceTrust';
 	readonly isTrusted: boolean;
 }
+export interface ITokenizedCodeBlockMessage {
+	readonly type: 'tokenizedCodeBlock';
+	readonly codeBlockId: string;
+	readonly html: string;
+}
+
+export interface ITokenizedStylesChangedMessage {
+	readonly type: 'tokenizedStylesChanged';
+	readonly css: string;
+}
 
 export type FromWebviewMessage = WebviewIntialized |
 	IDimensionMessage |
@@ -388,6 +403,8 @@ export type ToWebviewMessage = IClearMessage |
 	IInitializeMarkupCells |
 	INotebookStylesMessage |
 	INotebookOptionsMessage |
-	INotebookUpdateWorkspaceTrust;
+	INotebookUpdateWorkspaceTrust |
+	ITokenizedCodeBlockMessage |
+	ITokenizedStylesChangedMessage;
 
 export type AnyMessage = FromWebviewMessage | ToWebviewMessage;
diff --git a/src/vs/workbench/contrib/notebook/browser/view/renderers/webviewPreloads.ts b/src/vs/workbench/contrib/notebook/browser/view/renderers/webviewPreloads.ts
index 4fa6b7e7c1e02c..c3bc9163d90df1 100644
--- a/src/vs/workbench/contrib/notebook/browser/view/renderers/webviewPreloads.ts
+++ b/src/vs/workbench/contrib/notebook/browser/view/renderers/webviewPreloads.ts
@@ -61,6 +61,8 @@ async function webviewPreloads(ctx: PreloadContext) {
 	const vscode = acquireVsCodeApi();
 	delete (globalThis as any).acquireVsCodeApi;
 
+	const tokenizationStyleElement = document.querySelector('style#vscode-tokenization-styles');
+
 	const handleInnerClick = (event: MouseEvent) => {
 		if (!event || !event.view || !event.view.document) {
 			return;
@@ -675,6 +677,17 @@ async function webviewPreloads(ctx: PreloadContext) {
 				viewModel.rerender();
 				break;
 			}
+			case 'tokenizedCodeBlock': {
+				const { codeBlockId, html } = event.data;
+				MarkupCell.highlightCodeBlock(codeBlockId, html);
+				break;
+			}
+			case 'tokenizedStylesChanged': {
+				if (tokenizationStyleElement) {
+					tokenizationStyleElement.textContent = event.data.css;
+				}
+				break;
+			}
 		}
 	});
 
@@ -1068,6 +1081,20 @@ async function webviewPreloads(ctx: PreloadContext) {
 
 	class MarkupCell implements IOutputItem {
 
+		private static pendingCodeBlocksToHighlight = new Map<string, HTMLElement>();
+
+		public static highlightCodeBlock(id: string, html: string) {
+			const el = MarkupCell.pendingCodeBlocksToHighlight.get(id);
+			if (!el) {
+				return;
+			}
+			const trustedHtml = ttPolicy?.createHTML(html) ?? html;
+			el.innerHTML = trustedHtml as string;
+			if (tokenizationStyleElement) {
+				el.insertAdjacentElement('beforebegin', tokenizationStyleElement.cloneNode(true) as HTMLElement);
+			}
+		}
+
 		public readonly ready: Promise<void>;
 
 		public readonly element: HTMLElement;
@@ -1199,9 +1226,21 @@ async function webviewPreloads(ctx: PreloadContext) {
 				}
 			}
 
+			const codeBlocks: Array<{ value: string, lang: string, id: string }> = [];
+			let i = 0;
+			for (const el of root.querySelectorAll('.vscode-code-block')) {
+				const lang = el.getAttribute('data-vscode-code-block-lang');
+				if (el.textContent && lang) {
+					const id = `${Date.now()}-${i++}`;
+					codeBlocks.push({ value: el.textContent, lang: lang, id });
+					MarkupCell.pendingCodeBlocksToHighlight.set(id, el as HTMLElement);
+				}
+			}
+
 			postNotebookMessage<webviewMessages.IRenderedMarkupMessage>('renderedMarkup', {
 				cellId: this.id,
 				html: html.join(''),
+				codeBlocks
 			});
 
 			dimensionUpdater.updateHeight(this.id, this.element.offsetHeight, {