Cerebras almost doubles in Nasdaq debut, topping $100 billion market cap after blockbuster IPO

Cerebras Systems experienced a remarkable rise during its Nasdaq debut on Thursday, launching at $350 per share after pricing its initial offering at $185. This impressive opening valuation catapults the chip manufacturer beyond the $100 billion mark, marking a significant milestone in its journey. The company successfully sold 30 million shares late Wednesday, amassing $5.55 billion, which stands as the largest IPO for a U.S. technology firm since Uber's debut in 2019. Should underwriters exercise their option to purchase an additional 4.5 million shares, the total proceeds could escalate to approximately $6.38 billion. As a prominent player in the semiconductor industry, Cerebras is riding the wave of the artificial intelligence boom, which has positively influenced numerous companies in the sector this year. Industry giants like Intel, Advanced Micro Devices, and Micron have all reported significant gains, with the VanEck Semiconductor ETF soaring by 58% so far in 2026. Cerebras is recognized as the largest pure-play AI IPO to enter Wall Street and the first significant tech offering in several months, coinciding with a broader challenge in the market that began in 2022 amidst rising inflation. However, a new wave of AI-focused IPOs may be on the horizon. Notably, Elon Musk's SpaceX, which merged with the AI entity xAI in February, is preparing for a share sale, while model developers OpenAI and Anthropic may also approach the market later this year. In 2025, only 31 tech IPOs were recorded, a stark decline from 121 four years prior, according to data from IPO expert Jay Ritter at the University of Florida. Cerebras reported a 76% increase in revenue last year, totaling $510 million, alongside a net income of $88 million, a significant turnaround from a loss of $481.6 million the previous year. Facing competition primarily from Nvidia, the world’s most valuable company, Cerebras asserts that it holds speed and price advantages over Nvidia's graphics processing units due to its unique architecture. Nvidia recently invested $20 billion in startup Groq, which produces chips more comparable to those of Cerebras, and plans to develop Groq-based products. The path to the IPO for Cerebras has been complex. The company initially filed for public offering in September 2024 but withdrew the application after facing intense scrutiny due to a heavy reliance on a single customer, G42 in the UAE, backed by Microsoft. In its revised prospectus, Cerebras indicated that only 24% of its revenue came from G42 last year, down from 85% in 2024, while the Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence accounted for 62% of its revenue. Cerebras' CEO, Andrew Feldman, noted in a CNBC interview that the company has several significant customers. He mentioned that they are collaborating with the UAE university to develop English-Arabic AI models, highlighting the institution's commitment to training AI practitioners. Feldman, who co-founded Cerebras in 2016, retains approximately 5% voting power and a stake valued close to $2 billion at the IPO price. Fidelity holds around 11%, while venture capital firm Benchmark possesses 9%. Cerebras is shifting its focus from hardware sales to cloud services powered by its chips, placing it in competition with major cloud providers like Google and Microsoft, as well as Oracle and CoreWeave. The company recently announced a cloud collaboration with OpenAI, valued at over $20 billion, set to expire in 2028. Additionally, Amazon Web Services plans to integrate Cerebras chips into its data centers to facilitate rapid AI model deployment, expanding the company's customer base. Both Amazon and OpenAI have warrants to acquire Cerebras stock. The IPO was orchestrated by major financial institutions including Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, Barclays, and UBS.