Artificial intelligence chipmaker Cerebras Systems has withdrawn its plans for an initial public offering (IPO) in the United States, effective immediately — a move that has raised questions about whether the California-based firm is ready to take on the scrutiny of public markets despite surging investor enthusiasm for AI-related stocks.
The withdrawal comes at a time when U.S. IPO activity has been picking up, reversing months of slowdown caused by trade-policy uncertainty and tightening financial conditions. Several tech and AI-linked listings have recently found success, including data center real estate investment trust Fermi, which drew strong demand amid mounting investor appetite for AI infrastructure.
Yet Cerebras, despite being one of the most closely watched startups in the AI hardware race, appears to have chosen caution over momentum. Some in the industry say the decision underscores a broader hesitation among fast-growing AI firms to expose their operations and finances to public scrutiny before they achieve sustainable profitability.
“Given that Cerebras just very recently completed a sizeable fund raise, it is of no surprise that they are holding off to pursue the IPO at this time,” said Josef Schuster, CEO of IPO research firm IPOX. “This looks more like a timing issue than a reflection of market weakness.”
A Record Funding Round
Just days before the withdrawal filing, Cerebras announced it had raised $1.1 billion in fresh capital from investors led by Fidelity Management & Research and Atreides Management, giving it a valuation of $8.1 billion. Other participants included Tiger Global, Valor Equity Partners, and 1789 Capital — a fund in which U.S. President Donald Trump’s son is a partner.
The funding injection provided a major boost to the company’s balance sheet, leading many analysts to conclude that an IPO would no longer be immediately necessary to raise capital. CEO Andrew Feldman confirmed this view earlier in the week, saying while the company still intends to go public, it will do so “at the right time.”
“Our IPO plans remain in place, but timing is everything. We have the capital we need to grow aggressively right now,” Feldman said.
Founded in Sunnyvale, California, Cerebras Systems designs high-performance AI chips and systems that dramatically accelerate the training and execution of large-scale AI models — a field dominated by Nvidia, whose GPUs power most of today’s AI infrastructure.
The company’s IPO ambition first became public last year when it filed to list on the Nasdaq, an announcement that immediately drew investor excitement. But the plan soon ran into complications after the U.S. government launched a national security review into a $335 million investment from G42, an Abu Dhabi-based AI and cloud computing firm.
The investigation delayed the IPO indefinitely and brought the company under tighter regulatory scrutiny amid escalating U.S. concerns about foreign access to advanced semiconductor technology.
Analysts Question Readiness
Even before the withdrawal, several analysts had questioned whether Cerebras was operationally and financially ready for a public listing. Unlike Nvidia, which has diversified revenue streams and robust profitability, Cerebras remains heavily reliant on a handful of large contracts, including partnerships with governments and research institutions deploying its AI supercomputers.
Others noted that the AI chip market remains intensely competitive and capital-intensive, with players like AMD, Intel, and a host of startups racing to capture demand from data centers and AI labs.
Meanwhile, Cerebras’s decision to stay private comes as AI hardware demand continues to soar globally, with data centers, automakers, and cloud providers spending billions to expand their computing capacity. Yet analysts warn that investor euphoria around AI has led to lofty valuations — a trend Amazon founder Jeff Bezos recently described as an “industrial bubble.”
While many companies have capitalized on the hype by going public, others — including Anthropic and OpenAI, both privately held — have opted to delay IPOs in favor of securing deep-pocketed investors willing to inject long-term capital without the quarterly earnings pressure of Wall Street.
IPO expert Josef Schuster emphasized that Cerebras’s case is not indicative of broader weakness in the U.S. IPO market.
“This is more of a company-specific strategic decision,” he said. “Investor sentiment for AI-linked listings remains exceptionally strong.”
A Strategic Pause, Not a Retreat
For now, Cerebras appears intent on consolidating its financial position and expanding its market presence before revisiting public listing plans. With a fortified cash base, the company is expected to accelerate production and deployment of its Wafer Scale Engine chips, which it claims are the largest and fastest processors ever built for AI workloads.
By holding off on its IPO, Cerebras joins a growing list of AI startups choosing to remain private longer, banking on investor enthusiasm to sustain operations while navigating a complex regulatory environment and uncertain market dynamics. Still, analysts say the move reflects more than just prudence — it hints at the emerging divide between AI’s financial hype and operational reality.
