NEW YORK — Shares of US chip startup Cerebras Systems surged on Thursday in its trading debut, hitting a market value of $80 billion at one point.
Shortly after 1800 GMT (4 a.m. Friday in Manila), Cerebras stood at $307.35, up around 66 percent on the Nasdaq exchange after earlier more than doubling its $185 opening price. The strong market debut underscores demand for equities tied to the artificial intelligence (AI) investment boom. The company raised $5.55 billion in an initial public offering (IPO), the largest so far in 2026. Cerebras had twice raised its target price for the listing on the Nasdaq electronic exchange. Cerebras specializes in giant processors about the size of dinner plates to increase processing speed, also known as wafer-scale systems. They are viewed as suitable for the development and use of AI models. After three years of sustained growth following the release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, the AI infrastructure market has exploded this year. In January, OpenAI committed to acquiring a massive quantity of Cerebras processors, a contract valued at over $10 billion. As part of this agreement, Cerebras granted OpenAI warrants ― derivative products that can be converted into shares under certain conditions. If all the conditions are met, OpenAI could control more than 10 percent of Cerebras’ capital. Cerebras’ IPO is the largest to date and comes as AI-linked stocks push broader markets to record highs despite challenges caused by the conflict between Iran and the United States.
