Cerebras Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:CBRS) faces more potential selling when up to 19.4 million more shares become eligible for sale on Wednesday under the AI chipmaker’s staggered IPO lock-up.
The stock is on watch after sliding 10.7% to $146.62 on Monday, its lowest close yet, according to Benzinga Pro market data. Shares are down about 58% from their $350 opening price in May and trade roughly 21% below the $185 IPO price.
- CBRS stock is moving. See the real-time price action here.
Lock-Up Clock Ticks
Cerebras set up its lock-up to release insider stock in stages rather than all at once, similar to SpaceX. The releases were planned in several rounds running through the end of October, Axios reported at the time of the IPO.
The last tranche of this size arrived Sept. 30. Up to 19.4 million shares held by directors, officers, employees and other holders unlocked that day, equal to 8% of shares outstanding. The stock fell 8.9% that day.
Before that, up to 14.6 million shares had been freed every two weeks since Aug. 19.
Insiders have been selling. CEO Andrew Feldman and CTO Sean Lie sold more than $240 million of Class A shares between Aug. 20 and Sept. 25 under trading plans, according to Benzinga’s insider sale data.
OpenAI Doubts Linger
The unlock comes on top of questions about Cerebras’ biggest customer. On Sept. 30, research firm SemiAnalysis said OpenAI would run the “Ultrafast” mode of GPT-6.1 Sol on NVIDIA Corp. (NASDAQ:NVDA) GPUs rather than on Cerebras hardware. Cerebras fell nearly 20% that week and closed at $166.43 on Oct. 2.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman pushed back late that Friday.
“There is some speculation about our partnership with Cerebras. Cerebras is a close partner, and we have a deep engagement pushing on the frontiers of speed,” he wrote on X. The stock jumped 9% the following Monday. His post did not say which chips run the new tier.
Citi analysts said their 2026-2028 revenue outlook for Cerebras was “unchanged.” They called it “too early to read much into” the rollout, CNBC reported.
The two companies are closely tied. Cerebras has a multiyear deal worth more than $20 billion to supply OpenAI with 750 megawatts of computing power. OpenAI also lent Cerebras $1 billion and holds warrants for up to 33.4 million shares.
See More:
Top Momentum Stocks
Altman Bounce Fades
Cerebras’ Altman bounce didn’t hold. Shares have fallen about 19% since closing at $181.55 on Oct. 5.
Pressure across the sector added to the losses. AI stocks slid Oct. 8 after reports that OpenAI’s annualized revenue at the end of September was about $18 billion below earlier figures.
On Monday, Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) unveiled its Maia 300 chip and said it would become the main inference system for Microsoft’s own products. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index dropped 2.7% the same day.
Inference is the core of Cerebras’ pitch, and each new in-house chip from a big cloud company makes the competitive question harder to ignore.
Cerebras is now worth about $34.8 billion. It was valued near $95 billion after its first day of trading.
CBRS Stock Price Activity: Cerebras stock was up 0.49% at $147.34 at the time of publication on Tuesday, according to Benzinga Pro.
Photo: Courtesy Cerebras
