Cerebras raises $5.5B, then stock pops $108%, in the first huge tech IPO of 2026

# Cerebras raises $5.5B, then stock pops $108%, in the first huge tech IPO of 2026 | TechCrunch Source: [https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/14/cerebras-raises-5-5b-kicking-off-2026s-ipo-season-with-a-bang/](https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/14/cerebras-raises-5-5b-kicking-off-2026s-ipo-season-with-a-bang/) Cerebras Systems raised $5\.5 billion in its IPO on Thursday, pricing shares at $185 Wednesday evening, way higher than its range \($115 to $125, later raised to $150 to $160\), even as it increased the size of the offering to 30 million shares\. It then opened to public trading at $385, more than double \(up 108%\), as retail investors bid up the price to grab shares\. The stock cooled a bit soon after, trading midday at above $330\. It ended the day at $311 and a $66 billion valuation, according to Yahoo Finance\. But the price was rising again in after\-hours trading\. Even at the IPO price of $185, the company entered its first day of trading at a fully diluted valuation of $56\.4 billion \(meaning, accounting for all shares\)\. Co\-founder CEO Andrew Feldman’s stake at $185/share was worth nearly $1\.9 billion, while co\-founder and CTO Sean Lie’s stake weighed in at about $1 billion\. And obviously, if the above $300 price holds, the company and founders are worth far more than that\. A year ago, it looked like this day would never happen for Cerebras\. The Nvidia competitor, which designed its giant chip from scratch, purpose\-built for AI, had first filed to go public in 2024\. But concerns about a large investment from Abu Dhabi\-based Group 42 mired the IPO in an endless review from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States \(CFIUS\)\. Investors were also cool about its financials: Group 42 accounted for almost all of Cerebras’ revenue\. So those IPO plans were shelved\. IPO ambitions reappeared in earnest in April when the company[was able to report about double the revenue](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/2021728/000162828026033143/cerebras-sx1a2.htm#ibd339ea2eafe457fa4b52fadf16fc05d_2302): $510 million in 2025 \(up 76% year\-over\-year\), and from a handful of customers\. It also reported a massive swing to a profit — to $237\.8 million in net income — compared to losing nearly half a billion the year before\. Investors began salivating\. Cerebras has now come out as a major contender for supplying chips for inference — the ongoing compute processing required for models to answer prompts — and counts OpenAI \(in a[complicated circular\-deal relationship](https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/04/openais-cozy-partner-cerebras-is-on-track-for-a-blockbuster-ipo/)\), G42, Saudi's Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence, and Amazon Web Services as customers\. *When you purchase through links in our articles,[we may earn a small commission](https://techcrunch.com/techcrunch-affiliate-monetization-standards/)\. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence\.*