Cerebras Systems, a notable AI chipupstart, is accelerating toward a public offering. Their trip hasn’t been easy though—filled with large, multimillion dollar partnerships and intense regulatory oversight. The company’s relationship with G42, an AI firm based in the United Arab Emirates, has complicated its path to going public. For the first half of 2024, G42 was the overwhelming source of Cerebras’ revenue, representing an astounding 87%. This barnstorming number makes clear just how important their collaboration has been. G42’s historical connections to Chinese tech companies have led to a CFIUS national security review. This close examination is proving to be hurdles, big hurdles, for Cerebras.
The national security review has pushed back Cerebras’ original, pre-acquisition-agreement intentions for an IPO by several months. As of very early 2025, the company had made the unfortunate but prudent decision to withdraw its IPO filing. This move followed sharp criticism over its ties to G42. This decision led Cerebras to rethink its investor base and go-to-market strategy. By late 2025, Cerebras successfully removed G42 from its investor list, clearing a significant hurdle and paving the way for a new attempt at going public.
Cerebras just pulled off a big coup—the startup entered a multi-year agreement to support OpenAI. This deal, totaling more than $10 billion, will provide… wait for it… a whopping 750 megawatts of computing power! This partnership further highlights Cerebras’ muscle, while simultaneously placing it in a coveted strategic position within the quickly evolving AI landscape. The company claims that its systems—powered by proprietary chips purpose-built to handle AI workloads—provide faster performance. They claim much better efficiency than their equivalents from Nvidia.
Cerebras has enjoyed a spectacular run-up in its market cap. Last month the company raised $1 billion in new capital. This funding increased its valuation to $23 billion, almost tripling from $8.1 billion in only half a year’s time. This increase is a strong vote of confidence in the company’s technology and market potential. Notably, Cerebras’ architecture features 900,000 specialized cores operating in parallel, allowing its systems to perform AI calculations without the need to shuffle data across multiple separate chips. Further, the chip is built using almost an entire 300-millimeter silicon wafer, adding to its efficiency.
Benchmark Capital, one of Cerebras’ very early investors, has been a formative influence on the company’s management and strategic growth. The firm led Cerebras’ $27 million Series A funding round in 2016. Since then, it has aggressively invested up to at least $225 million in that last funding round. This suggests that Benchmark’s level of investment reflects its deep conviction in Cerebras’ future success and groundbreaking technology.
Cerebras is preparing for its second IPO attempt. Industry experts are hyper-attuned to how the company—newly freed from its past associates—will steer between its sordid past loves and the new, present, and future partners. The strategic agreements and substantial capital raised may help position Cerebras favorably in a competitive market, but the lingering effects of regulatory scrutiny remain a crucial factor.
