Cerebras Systems began trading on the Nasdaq today after raising $5.55 billion in its initial public offering (IPO). The company said it increased the price of 30 million shares, originally planned at $150–$160, to $185 per share.
Offer details
On Wednesday, Cerebras disclosed that it granted underwriters a 30‑day option to purchase an additional 4.5 million shares. The listing is on the Nasdaq Global Select Market and the offering is scheduled to close on May 15.
Chips built for AI inference
Cerebras manufactures chips specifically optimized for artificial intelligence inference — the post‑training phase when a trained model makes predictions, takes actions, or generates new content in response to previously unseen inputs. Demand for such inference‑optimized chips has risen as AI labs increasingly run their models on specialized hardware after initial training.
Partnerships and backers
The company is backed by OpenAI and Sam Altman. In January, OpenAI struck a multibillion‑dollar deal to purchase Cerebras computing capacity to run the popular ChatGPT chatbot on Cerebras hardware. News Corp, owner of The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires, has a content‑licensing partnership with OpenAI.
Advisers to the Cerebras IPO include Morgan Stanley and Citigroup.
Timing and market context
The Cerebras offering has drawn attention partly because OpenAI itself plans to go public next spring. In a March funding round, OpenAI received a post‑money valuation of $852 billion. With these valuations, the companies involved comfortably exceed the $1 billion threshold that defines a unicorn startup.
Summary
The IPO priced 30 million shares at $185, raising $5.55 billion, with an option for underwriters to buy 4.5 million more shares. Cerebras’s inference‑focused chips and its commercial ties to OpenAI make the listing a notable event in the expanding market for AI hardware. The offering will close on May 15.
