Cerebras rallied 9% on Monday after a bruising week that knocked the stock down 20% to its lowest level in that stretch. The drop followed news that OpenAI plans to run the "Ultrafast" mode of GPT-6.1 Sol on Nvidia graphics processing units rather than Cerebras chips. On Friday, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman tried to settle nerves, posting on X, "Cerebras is a close partner, and we have a deep engagement pushing on the frontiers of speed." Following his comments, the stock gained nearly 3% in after-hours trading that day.
A single endorsement can reprice a chip company in an afternoon. Market Briefs covers the AI hardware race free every morning.
Cerebras went public on Nasdaq in May in a blockbuster debut, but its market value has since fallen to about $43 billion from $95 billion. On Monday the shares closed at 181.55, up 15.12 or 9.08%. As of 6:49 PM EDT, the after-hours price was 182.15, an increase of 0.60 or 0.33%.
Cerebras, a competitor to Nvidia, builds massive chips and AI systems intended to run models faster than conventional GPUs. The company says its flagship Wafer Scale Engine 3 outpaces Nvidia's GPU. In January, it struck a $10 billion agreement with OpenAI to deliver 750 megawatts of compute capacity through 2028.
Citi analysts said their projection for Cerebras revenue in 2026 through 2028 remains "unchanged." In a Friday note, they wrote, "We believe frontier-AI labs' latest models would initially roll out on internal chips before running on third-party or Cerebras cloud, so it's too early to read much into it." They also cautioned that showing gross margin stabilization is key to outperformance and that any pushout of the gross margin trough could hit sentiment given the stock's premium valuation.
What this means for your money: the story hinges on two levers that retail investors can track without a PhD in chips - proof that big customers keep buying compute from Cerebras and clear signs that margins are finding a floor.
Who is seen as a credible Nvidia alternative is worth billions. Get the free Market Briefs daily newsletter and follow the field.
