Why the Cerebras IPO matters for the AI race with – Business News
Cerebras, an AI chipmaker, noticed its shares almost double on Nasdaq, closing up 70% with a $95B market cap.
Cerebras’s highly effective chips are key in the US-China AI tech race.
Chris Buskirk, co-founder and chief investment officer of 1789 Capital, a key Cerebras investor, says the company’s IPO is geopolitically vital.
On Thursday, shares of Sunnyvale, California-based AI chipmaker Cerebras went public and almost doubled in the moments after it opened on the Nasdaq at $185 per share. It closed out the day at $311 per share marking a 70% increase in the price of the stock, giving it a $95 billion market cap, and making it the largest IPO of the 12 months to date.
For traders determined to get more AI publicity — the IPO was 20 occasions oversubscribed — that is one of the largest new performs in the public markets, alongside chipmaker Nvidia.
“This thing is flying … partly because there are so few ways for public investors, whether retail or institutional, to invest in this,” Chris Buskirk, co-founder and chief investment officer of 1789 Capital, an early investor in the company informed me.
Cerebras makes specialised high-power chips, most notably the Wafer Scale Engine, the largest chip ever produced with a processor the measurement of an whole silicon wafer and 19 occasions more computing energy than Nvidia’s flagship chip.
California-based AI chipmaker Cerebras went public and almost doubled in the moments after it opened on the Nasdaq at $185 per share. IM Imagery – stock.adobe.com
The IPO arrived at a pivotal second, with AI turning into a key level of leverage in discussions with China amid President Trump’s go to to Xi Jinping in Beijing this week.
“American companies are excellent but the Chinese companies are very good — well capitalized with very talented people,” Buskirk mentioned. “It’s going to be the American AI tech stack or the Chinese AI tech stack that will proliferate not just in our own countries, but around the world and that’s something we absolutely have to win.”
In that context, Cerebras’ itemizing could also be even more vital geopolitically than financially. The IPO serves as a well timed reminder of how America is building each the {hardware} and software program basis to take care of AI dominance edge and how keen China is to get American chips.
“This thing is flying … partly because there are so few ways for public investors, whether retail or institutional, to invest in this,” Chris Buskirk, co-founder and chief investment officer of 1789 Capital, an early investor in Cerebras informed me. The Washington Post by way of Getty Images
But traders say the company doesn’t simply underscore America’s commanding AI {hardware} benefit — its deep ties throughout the Middle East are actively increasing US technology affect at a time China is aggressively attempting to dominate the area.
“This is the existential geopolitical race of our time,” Buskirk provides.
That’s on full show in the Gulf. In 2025, Cerebras relied on two UAE clients for 86% of its $510 million in income. Those ties have drawn scrutiny and even led to a national security review from CFIUS that delayed the chip maker’s itemizing (UAE-based G42 has an investment portfolio that included Chinese tech firms).
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But traders argue the relationship in the end strengthens affect in areas China needs to control.
“During the Biden administration, the US government did everything they could to push our allies in the Middle East away from us into China’s arms… It was the Biden administration that was pushing them into China’s arms. The Trump administration is bringing them back into alignment with the United States.” — Buskirk informed me.
Cerebras closed out the day at $311 per share marking a 70% increase in the price of the stock, giving it a $95 billion market cap, and making it the largest IPO of the 12 months to date. AFP by way of Getty Images
“Everybody needs to adopt AI technology — every company, every country needs to do it. And there’s only two choices. Do you align with the United States AI stack or align with the Chinese tech stack?”
And velocity, at this second, is all the pieces — as a result of computing energy has turn into the defining constraint on AI’s growth.
“Compute is the new bottleneck,” mentioned Buskirk. “Software can scale infinitely — that’s why people loved to invest in [Software as a Service] companies. But the amount of compute that’s necessary for AI is many orders of magnitude larger.”
Cerebras has additionally secured a main strategic investment and compute partnership from OpenAI, which some critics dismiss as a round deal that solely inflates the AI bubble.
Buskirk rejected that view, arguing the association is a sensible necessity: “They can’t deploy their models at scale unless there are leading-edge chip companies that have enough scale to deliver chips to them.”
The company has additionally drawn scrutiny for its ties to the Pentagon — which Buskirk says is definitely a good factor.
“The US government should be buying the absolute best leading-edge technology from American companies at all times,” he informed me. “And Cerebras is one of those companies.”
