Cerebras closes $5.55B IPO

Cerebras Systems closed its initial public offering on May 15 after selling 34.5 million Class A shares at $185 each, including the underwriters’ full exercise of an option for 4.5 million additional shares, the company said. Gross proceeds from the sale were about $6.38 billion before fees and expenses, according to the company’s closing statement. (cerebras.ai) The Sunnyvale, California-based AI chip company had priced 30 million shares on May 13, with trading set to begin the next day on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker CBRS. (cerebras.ai) Bloomberg reported that the base deal size at pricing was $5.55 billion and that Cerebras shares closed at $311.07 on May 14 after opening trading above the IPO price and being halted earlier for volatility. (cerebras.ai) Bloomberg also reported that the stock climbed 68% in its debut session in New York. ### How large was the deal when Cerebras priced it? Cerebras said on May 13 that it priced an aggregate of 30 million Class A shares at $185 each. That price implied gross proceeds of $5.55 billion before underwriting discounts and other expenses, based on the number of shares in the base offering. The company also said it granted underwriters a 30-day option to buy up to 4.5 million more shares at the IPO price. (cerebras.ai) Bloomberg reported on May 12 that the company had already revised the deal higher, marketing 30 million shares at $150 to $160 each after an earlier range of $115 to $125 and a smaller planned offering. Bloomberg reported on May 13 that Cerebras was poised to price above that revised range. (bloomberg.com) ### What happened when the stock started trading? Nasdaq trading in CBRS began on May 14, one day after the pricing announcement, according to Cerebras. Bloomberg reported that the shares closed at $311.07 in New York after intraday volatility triggered a halt. Bloomberg also reported that the stock had opened trading at $350. (cerebras.ai) The May 14 close left the shares well above the $185 IPO price. Bloomberg described the transaction as the year’s largest IPO so far. ### Who ran the offering? Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, Barclays and UBS Investment Bank acted as lead book-running managers, Cerebras said in both its pricing and closing releases. (bloomberg.com) Mizuho and TD Cowen served as bookrunners, while Needham & Company, Craig-Hallum, Wedbush Securities, Rosenblatt, Academy Securities, Credit Agricole CIB, MUFG and First Citizens Capital Securities were listed as co-managers. (cerebras.ai) The Securities and Exchange Commission had declared the registration statement effective before pricing, the company said. SEC records show Cerebras filed an amended S-1 on May 4 and now appears on the SEC’s company page as CBRS on Nasdaq. (bloomberg.com) ### Why were investors already focused on Cerebras before the float? Cerebras had spent the months before the IPO adding financing and commercial announcements. The company said on April 15 that it closed an $850 million revolving credit facility, and on February 4 it announced a $1 billion Series H financing round. (cerebras.ai) On January 14, Cerebras said OpenAI had signed a multi-year agreement to deploy 750 megawatts of Cerebras wafer-scale systems for OpenAI customers, with rollout beginning in 2026. Cerebras said the deployment would proceed in multiple stages. (cerebras.ai) ### What comes next after the IPO close? Cerebras said the underwriters’ option has already been exercised in full, taking the total shares sold to 34.5 million and gross proceeds to about $6.38 billion. The company’s stock is now trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under ticker CBRS, and the prospectus for the offering is available through the SEC and the lead underwriters named in the company’s release. (cerebras.ai 1) (cerebras.ai 2) (cerebras.ai 3)