Cerebras stock soars 68% debut

Cerebras Systems arrived on Nasdaq on May 14 with one of the largest U.S. technology IPOs in years. The Sunnyvale, California, company priced 30 million Class A shares at $185 on May 13, raising $5.55 billion, and the stock closed its first trading day at $311.07, up 68%. Shares opened at $350 and reached as high as $386 before easing later in the session. (cerebras.ai) Andrew Feldman, Cerebras’ co-founder and chief executive, rang the opening bell in New York as investors pushed the company’s market value sharply higher in its first day on the public market. (cerebras.ai) The deal was led by Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, Barclays and UBS Investment Bank, according to the company’s offering statement. ### How large was the offering, exactly? Cerebras sold 30,000,000 shares in the IPO at $185 each, according to the company’s May 13 announcement. That produced gross proceeds of about $5.55 billion before underwriting discounts and commissions. (cerebras.ai) The company also granted underwriters a 30-day option to buy up to 4,500,000 additional shares at the IPO price. May 15 is the expected closing date for the transaction, subject to customary conditions, the company said. Cerebras listed on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker symbol “CBRS.” (cnbc.com) ### Why did the stock’s first day draw so much attention? Thursday’s trading gave investors a simple set of numbers to focus on: $185 at pricing, $350 at the open and $311.07 at the close. CNBC reported the intraday high at $386, after volatility halts during the session. Bloomberg reported the closing gain at 68% and described the sale as the year’s largest IPO. (cerebras.ai) Bloomberg said the debut valued Cerebras at about $95 billion. Other market-value calculations varied depending on whether they used basic or fully diluted share counts, but the first-day move still placed the company among the most closely watched AI listings of 2026. (cerebras.ai) ### How did the company get to a $185 IPO price? May 4 was the date Cerebras publicly launched the offering with an expected price range of $115 to $125 per share for 28 million shares, according to its investor release. Bloomberg reported on May 12 that the company had raised the marketed range to $150 to $160 and increased the number of shares to 30 million as demand strengthened. (cnbc.com) It then priced at $185, above that revised range. The company’s SEC registration process began earlier. (cnbc.com) Cerebras said in July 2024 that it had confidentially submitted draft IPO paperwork, and an S-1 registration statement was publicly filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on April 17, 2026. ### What business were investors buying into? Cerebras describes itself as an AI infrastructure company built around its Wafer-Scale Engine processors and related systems. In its IPO materials, the company said its flagship WSE-3 processor is its core hardware platform, and its press release said the chip is used in systems sold to corporations, research institutes and governments. (investors.cerebras.ai) CNBC reported that Cerebras generated $510 million in revenue in 2025, up 76% from a year earlier, and posted net income of $88 million after a loss of $481.6 million in the prior year. (cerebras.ai) CNBC also reported that the company expanded its business this year through deals with Amazon and OpenAI. ### What happens next for the stock and the deal? May 15 is the scheduled closing date for the IPO, and the underwriters’ option for 4.5 million additional shares remains open for 30 days after pricing. Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, Barclays and UBS are the lead book-running managers on the transaction, with Mizuho and TD Cowen as bookrunners. (cerebras.ai) Nasdaq now lists Cerebras under the ticker CBRS, and the next formal milestones are the closing of the sale and any disclosure on whether the underwriters exercise the additional-share option. (cnbc.com) Those details would typically appear in company filings and investor releases. (cerebras.ai)