Cerebras Upcoming IPO: Computing going Public amidst AI fever
In the latest iteration of the AI boom, chipmaker and AI platform company Cerebras is looking to have an initial public offering (IPO) as soon as the second half of 2024. Expectations around the potential IPO were buoyed in April by Bloomberg's report that Cerebras hired Citigroup as lead underwriter. 3
Cerebras: company background
While AI fervor has picked up in the last couple of years, Cerebras has deep roots within the tech/computing world.
The company was founded in 2016 by a team of industry veterans, including current Chief Executive Officer Andrew Feldman and Chief Technology Officer Gary Lauterbach. 4 Feldman and Lauterbach previously founded a microserver startup called SeaMicro, which was acquired by semiconductor company AMD in 2012.5
Cerebras' three other co-founders — Jean-Philippe Fricker, Michael James, and Sean Lie — also held prominent roles at SeaMicro.6
Feeding demand
The rise of generative AI, particularly OpenAI's ChatGPT, helped fuel tremendous growth in certain tech companies that power AI computing. Nvidia is perhaps the most prominent example of this boon, with the chip maker's stock price rising over 190% over the past year.7
Cerebras competes with Nvidia, but rather than producing relatively small Graphic Processing Units (GPUs) to process AI workloads like Nvidia does, Cerebras has created the world's largest computer chip with its flagship product, the third generation wafer-scale engine (WSE-3).8
Cerebras also has its hands in related AI areas, like with its CS-3 system, powered by its flagship chip, that other companies can use to run AI workloads.9
Amidst the demand for AI hardware and platforms, Cerebras' revenue has doubled year over year and the company started to break even in terms of cash flow, as of late 2023.10
Cerebras also has partnerships in place with significant organizations to support AI development, such as with the announcement in early 2024 that Cerebras is working with Mayo Clinic for AI in healthcare.11
Cerebras stock price history
Cerebras' Forge Price is $30.05 at an implied $5.84 billion valuation, which represents a 105% premium to its last funding round. 12 Forge Price is a derived data point that reflects the up-to-date price performance of venture-backed, late-stage companies, and is calculated based on a proprietary model incorporating pricing inputs from primary funding round information, secondary market transactions, and indications of interest (IOIs) on Forge.
Zooming out, Cerebras has dramatically outperformed the broader Enterprise Software sector, which includes many AI companies, and the Forge Private Market Index, a broad measurement that reflects the up-to-date performance and pricing activity of venture-backed, late-stage companies that are actively traded in the private market. In the last year, Cerebras has gained 291.8% compared to the Forge Private Market Index, which is up 0.7%. 13
Cerebras funding history and private market valuation
Cerebras' funding totals over $720 million. That financing haul dates back to a Series A in May 2016, when the company raised nearly $27 million at a valuation of a little over $67 million. Cerebras then reached unicorn status with its Series D in November 2018, when it hit a post-money valuation of $1.8 billion. Three years later, it broke $4 billion with its Series F.14
Some of Cerebras' top investors include Alpha Wave Ventures, which led its Series F, alongside the Abu Dhabi Growth Fund and G42, which is a tech conglomerate that Cerebras has also partnered with to build supercomputers. 15
Other investors include Altimeter Capital, Benchmark, Coatue Management, Eclipse Ventures, Foundation Capital, and Vy Capital, among others.16
Looking ahead
Cerebras plans reflect the optimism of a strong AI market. Althought the exact details of Cerebras' IPO plans remain publicly unknown, though the reported hiring of Citigroup could be the start of more announcements in the coming months.
Check back here or take a look at Forge’s upcoming IPO calendar to stay in the loop about a possible Cerebras IPO and other pending public offerings.
If you’re interested in investing in private companies like Cerebras before they go public, read more about pre-IPO investing or register on Forge Markets today to get started.
FAQ About the Cerebras IPO
Cerebras is a technology company that specializes in computer chips and platforms designed to support AI usage. While some AI companies use multiple small chips for AI computing power, Cerebras focuses on creating much larger chips with more processing power.
According to The Information, Cerebras has confidentially filed for an IPO. 17
Cerebras' key investors include the Abu Dhabi Growth Fund and G42 (an Abu Dhabi-headquartered tech conglomerate), along with many venture capital firms such as Alpha Wave Ventures, Eclipse Ventures, Foundation Capital, and Benchmark. 18
At this time, only accredited investors can directly buy shares of Cerebras, as it is still a private company. Individual accredited investors may be able to invest in pre-IPO shares of Cerebras through private market platforms like Forge. If and when Cerebras IPOs, then investing would be open to the general public.
About the Author
Jake Safane specializes in financial reporting and is a former thought leadership editor for The Economist with articles appearing in Business Insider and The Washington Post among other media outlets. Mr. Safane has received compensation from Forge Global, Inc. for authoring this article. Read more from Jake.