AI chip manufacturer Cerebras aims for an initial public offering (IPO) of up to $4 billion, with a valuation of $40 billion.

      Following a retreat prompted by CFIUS in 2024, the wafer-scale chip startup is reemerging with a deal from OpenAI and a more strategic approach against Nvidia. Eighteen months prior, Cerebras Systems appeared to be a cautionary example. The Sunnyvale-based AI chip company had submitted its initial public offering paperwork in September 2024, but its plans faltered due to a national-security review concerning its biggest client. By October 2025, it withdrew its registration. The firm, known for producing the largest commercial silicon chip worldwide, was not entirely defeated but rather quietly sidelined.

      Now, it has returned with significantly greater ambition. On Friday, Bloomberg reported that Cerebras aims to raise up to $4 billion in its IPO, targeting a valuation of around $40 billion, according to sources familiar with the situation. This proposed figure is remarkable, being almost five times the $8.1 billion private-market valuation it held as recently as September 2025, and surpassing the $22 billion to $25 billion range that industry analysts had anticipated when the company refiled its S-1 with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on April 17.

      Cerebras plans to list on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker CBRS, with Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, Barclays, and UBS Investment Bank acting as joint book-running managers. If the pricing holds, this will mark the first significant AI hardware IPO of 2026 and one of the largest technology debuts in the US in recent times.

      A considerable portion of this renewed interest is attributed to a single contract. In its revised prospectus, Cerebras revealed a multi-year computing agreement with OpenAI valued at over $10 billion, which includes up to 750 megawatts of inference capacity through 2028. For a company that reported $510 million in revenue for 2025, reflecting a 76 percent increase from the previous year, this agreement is transformative. It also partially accounts for the surge in valuation, as Cerebras now boasts a highly sought-after anchor customer in the AI infrastructure market.

      The OpenAI agreement does not replace Nvidia, which continues to dominate the GPU supply for most industry training workloads. However, it does establish a credible position for Cerebras in inference, the segment of the AI framework that focuses on running compute rather than building it, where margin pressures are intensifying.

      Cerebras's wafer-scale processors, which are physically many times larger than an Nvidia H100, are specifically designed for that purpose. The company's initial IPO attempt faltered not due to technological issues but geopolitical factors. Abu Dhabi-based G42, an AI conglomerate with previous connections to Chinese partners, had become Cerebras's largest customer and a significant shareholder, contributing 87 percent of its revenue in the first half of 2024.

      The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States initiated a review of G42’s stake, leading Cerebras to pause its filing. CNBC reported that CFIUS approval was finally granted on March 31, 2025, after G42 divested its Chinese investments and agreed to convert its Cerebras shares to non-voting shares.

      The S-1 reflects that hard-fought resolution. G42’s economic stake remains intact, but its governance power has been limited. Whether this will satisfy public-market investors who are cautious about foreign investment in US chip companies is another matter. The prospectus includes an extensive discussion on the associated risk factors.

      In the time between abandoning its initial IPO and refiling, Cerebras did what well-funded growth companies do when public market opportunities diminish: it raised additional capital privately. A $1.1 billion Series G in September 2025 pegged the company’s valuation at $8.1 billion, while a $1 billion Series H in February 2026 brought that figure up to $23 billion, indicating a near tripling in five months. The proposed $40 billion IPO valuation, if realized, would represent a further 74 percent increase in roughly three months.

      Investors will assess this surge against the underlying financials. With $510 million in revenue being a solid figure for a hardware company at this stage, the OpenAI commitment offers forward visibility that few competitors can rival. Nonetheless, Cerebras remains significantly concentrated in both its customer base and a single architectural approach.

      The wafer-scale design that distinguishes it from Nvidia also presents challenges for mass production, and most analyst evaluations suggest the prospectus does not yet indicate the gross-margin profile of a company that has addressed that issue.

      Cerebras is filing in a market that has shown more caution than the headlines imply. Several large AI-related listings in late 2025 priced below their expected ranges, and bankers have privately cautioned that public investors are no longer willing to pay private-market multiples for unprofitable infrastructure ventures. A $4 billion raise at a $40 billion valuation would directly test this assumption.

      Additionally, there's the comparison issue. Nvidia's market capitalization has