Cerebras stock plummets 17% as AI chipmaker's first earnings report reveals margin pressures

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Cerebras Systems delivered strong 92% revenue growth in its first earnings report since going public, but investor concerns over shrinking gross margins sent shares tumbling 17%. The AI chipmaker forecast full-year margins of 38-41%, significantly below rivals like Nvidia, highlighting the financial pressures of manufacturing wafer-scale AI chips despite securing major deals with OpenAI and Amazon.

Cerebras Delivers Strong Revenue Growth in First Earnings Report Since IPO

Cerebras Systems posted impressive financial performance in its debut as a public company, reporting revenue of $193.4 million for the first quarter, representing 92% revenue growth compared to $99.5 million in the same period a year ago

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. The AI chipmaker exceeded analyst expectations of $181 million, while its net loss narrowed to $14 million from $23.9 million a year earlier

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. Despite these positive indicators, the company's stock plummets, falling 17% as investor concerns over profitability overshadowed the strong top-line numbers

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Source: Benzinga

Source: Benzinga

The earnings report comes just weeks after Cerebras raised $5.55 billion in its IPO last month, pricing shares at $185 before opening at $350 and closing the first day at $311.07

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. The offering represented the largest for a U.S. technology company since Uber's 2019 debut

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. However, shares have since experienced significant stock volatility, dropping 28% from their IPO debut to close at $226.72 before the earnings announcement

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Gross Margins Forecast Triggers Sharp Decline in AI Chip Market

The primary driver behind the stock decline was Cerebras Systems' forecast for gross margins, which revealed the competitive challenges the company faces in the AI chip market. The AI chipmaker projected adjusted gross margins of 38% to 41% for full-year 2026, a significant drop from the 47% reported in the first quarter

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. While this projection exceeds analyst expectations of 29.58%, it falls far below rivals like Nvidia, whose gross margins hover in the mid-70% range, and Advanced Micro Devices, which maintains margins in the mid-50% range

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Ben Bajarin, CEO of technology consulting firm Creative Strategies, explained that Cerebras' approach of manufacturing wafer-scale AI chips—some of the world's largest chips—likely pressures its gross margins because such large chips are difficult to manufacture

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. The company's second quarter adjusted gross margin is expected to range between 36% and 38%, continuing the downward trend from the first quarter's 46.5%

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Andrew Feldman Defends Financial Performance Amid Investor Concerns

Cerebras CEO Andrew Feldman pushed back against the negative market reaction, claiming on CNBC's Squawk on the Street that investors "misunderstood" the margin guidance

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. "We laid out a plan at the start of '26. We shared that plan as we went public a few months ago, and we're beating that plan," Feldman stated

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. He emphasized that the company's trajectory would not follow a straight line and pointed to temporary factors affecting margins.

Source: SiliconANGLE

Source: SiliconANGLE

Chief Financial Officer Bob Komin revealed during the earnings call that Cerebras is temporarily renting back its own systems from an existing client to meet short-term demand while building out more data center capacity

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. "The additional cost of renting third-party capacity will depress core cloud and other services margin temporarily from current levels," Komin explained, adding that Cerebras aims to achieve gross margins of 60% over the long term

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OpenAI Deal and AI Infrastructure Expansion Drive Future Growth

Despite the margin pressures, Cerebras has secured significant contracts that position it well in the AI infrastructure market. The company announced a $20 billion multi-year deal with OpenAI, under which the ChatGPT creator will deploy 750 megawatts of Cerebras chips

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. OpenAI uses Cerebras' cloud offering to host its software coding model Codex-Spark and plans to bring more advanced models such as GPT-5.5 to the service

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The company also announced that its chips will launch in Amazon Web Services' public cloud data centers

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. Andrew Feldman revealed that Cerebras is in early discussions for data centers in Israel, the UAE, Australia, Singapore, India and Indonesia

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. For the second quarter, the AI chipmaker forecast adjusted sales of $194 million, above analyst expectations of $174.34 million, representing 88% growth year-over-year

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Analyst Expectations Shift as Market Digests Mixed Signals

Following the earnings call, analysts at Mizuho and Wedbush raised their estimates, suggesting some confidence in Cerebras' long-term prospects

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. Prior to the earnings report, several firms including Wedbush, UBS, and Morgan Stanley had launched coverage with bullish ratings, with price targets ranging from $250 to $300

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. These analysts pointed to Cerebras' agreements with OpenAI and Amazon as evidence of its ability to attract high-profile clients.

However, the company's revenue picture faces complexity due to warrants for 33.4 million shares granted to OpenAI last year

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. While contra-revenue was negligible during the quarter, it's expected to grow substantially as the OpenAI contract ramps up, with one milestone potentially triggering as early as this month according to Needham analyst Quinn Bolton

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. For the full year, Cerebras expects core revenue between $855.5 million and $865 million, representing approximately 69% growth at the midpoint

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