Cerebras raises $5.5 billion, kicks off 2026 IPO season strong

Cerebras raised $5.5 billion in its initial public offering on Thursday, pricing shares at $185 on Wednesday evening, well above its range ($115-$125, later raised to $150-$160), even as the offering size increased to 30 million shares.

Pre-market trading indicates that shares will open with a giant bang, as retail investors bid up to grab them. (We will update this story after trading begins.)

Even at its IPO price, the company enters its first day of trading at a fully diluted valuation of $56.4 billion (i.e., counting all shares). CEO co-founder Andrew Feldman’s stake at $185 per share is worth nearly $1.9 billion, while co-founder CTO Sean Lie’s stake is about $1 billion.

A year ago, it seemed like this day would never happen for Cerebras. The Nvidia rival, which designed its giant chip from scratch, specifically designed for artificial intelligence, had filed for its first IPO in 2024. But concerns about a major investment from Abu Dhabi-based Group 42 have plunged the IPO into an endless review from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). Investors were also quiet about its financials: Group 42 accounted for almost all of Cerebras’ revenue. So the IPO plans were shelved.

Its IPO ambitions resurfaced in earnest in April when the company was able to report a doubling of revenue: $510 million in 2025 (up 76% year-over-year), and from a handful of clients. It also reported a huge swing in profit — to $237.8 million in net income — compared to a loss of nearly half a billion a year earlier.

Investors started salivating.

Cerebras is now a major contender to supply chips for inference – the continuous computational processing required for models to answer claims – and now counts OpenAI (in a complex circular deal), G42, Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed bin Zayed University for AI, and Amazon Web Services as customers.

This post will be updated with first day trading numbers.