Cerebras Systems has raised $5.55 billion in the largest IPO of the year thus far as investor appetite for AI infrastructure continues to surge, according to Bloomberg News.
The AI chipmaker went public on May 14, pricing 30 million shares at $185 each, above its already increased marketing range of $150 to $160 per share. It listed on the Nasdaq, under the ticker symbol CBRS. Shares surged to an intraday high of $385 and closed at $311.07.
The offering values Cerebras at roughly $40 billion based on outstanding shares, or about $49 billion on a fully diluted basis, according to Bloomberg calculations. The IPO reportedly drew demand for more than 20 times the shares available.
Cerebras is positioning itself as a challenger to Nvidia in the booming AI semiconductor market. It is known for making ‘wafer-scale’ chips the size of dinner plates – essentially turning an entire silicon wafer into one giant chip instead of cut into many smaller chips like traditional processors. The size lets it accommodate four trillion transistors and offer 125 petaflops of computing power.
Computing power matters because AI models process massive amounts of data repeatedly. Using one chip lets data move faster compared to having it hop from one small chip to another using a connector. Chipmakers usually avoid making one big chip because manufacturing defects can ruin the entire wafer. But Cerebras found an engineering solution to that problem.
Cerebras has been gaining ground, striking partnerships with major AI players including Amazon and OpenAI, which launched its first AI model running on Cerebras chips earlier this year.
Filings also show OpenAI holds 33.4 million warrants tied to Cerebras shares, with some vesting linked to compute-delivery milestones and the company surpassing a $40 billion valuation. Bloomberg also reported that SoftBank Group and Arm Holdings explored acquiring Cerebras before the listing.
SpaceX reportedly also plans to go public this year.