- Cerebras reported $209.9 million in Q2 core revenue, up 103% year over year, while GAAP revenue was $180.1 million. [1] - The company raised its full-year 2026 core revenue guidance to $880 million-$890 million and expects core gross margin of 41%-43%. [1] - Shares fell 17.8% in premarket trading on August 13 after rising 11.6% during the regular session on August 12. [2] - Cerebras said more than 600 megawatts of data-center capacity is live or under contract through 2027, while OpenAI remains a meaningful customer next year.
[3] Cerebras shares fell 17.8% in premarket trading Thursday, August 13, after the newly public AI-chip company reported faster cloud growth, raised its full-year guidance and said it expects revenue to more than triple in 2027. The stock closed at $262.06 on Wednesday, up 11.6%, before dropping to $215.50 in premarket trading. [2]
The selloff followed a quarter that exceeded Cerebras’ own operating targets. Core revenue, the company’s non-GAAP measure, reached $209.9 million, up 103% from a year earlier. GAAP revenue was $180.1 million. Core revenue excludes pass-through revenue and adds back amortization of customer warrant assets, among other adjustments. [1]
Cerebras raised its full-year 2026 core revenue forecast to $880 million-$890 million from $855 million-$865 million. It also lifted its expected core gross margin to 41%-43%, compared with its previous range of 38%-41%. [1]
Cloud growth came with a lower sequential margin #
Cloud and other services drove the quarter. GAAP cloud revenue rose 281% year over year to $126.0 million, while core cloud revenue increased 287% to $127.7 million. Core hardware revenue was $82.1 million, up 17% from a year earlier. [1]
Core gross margin was 40.6%, below the 46.5% reported in the first quarter but above the year-earlier level by about 9.4 percentage points. Chief Financial Officer Bob Komin said on the earnings call that Cerebras has been renting some of its systems back from cloud customers to meet demand before its own facilities are ready. He said those temporary capacity costs reduced the quarter’s margin by roughly five percentage points. [3]
Cerebras expects the pressure to continue in the third quarter. It forecast core revenue of $214 million-$216 million, core gross margin of 38%-40% and a core operating margin between negative 25% and negative 23%. The company said the third quarter should be the low point for core margin before owned systems replace higher-cost rented capacity in the fourth quarter. [1][3]
The GAAP results remain sharply negative. Cerebras reported a second-quarter operating loss of $477.2 million and a net loss of $450.5 million, or $2.98 per basic share. The company’s core operating loss was $33.6 million, producing a core operating margin of negative 16%. [1]
Capacity is the operating constraint #
Cerebras said more than 600 megawatts of data-center capacity is either live or under contract for delivery by the end of 2027. The company listed sites in the United States, Canada and Europe and said its pipeline of additional opportunities is now measured in gigawatts. It also expects manufacturing capacity to increase more than tenfold during 2026. [3]
The company ended June with $8.6 billion in cash, restricted cash and short-term investments, along with an unused revolving credit facility of up to $850 million. It spent $548.9 million on property and equipment during the first half of 2026, while operating cash flow was negative $47.5 million. [1]
Cerebras said its remaining performance obligations totaled $25.4 billion at June 30. That figure includes commitments tied to large strategic customers, but it is not the same as recognized revenue and depends on the company’s ability to build and activate the required capacity. [1]
OpenAI remains large as Cerebras adds customers #
On the earnings call, Chief Executive Andrew Feldman said OpenAI would remain a meaningful portion of Cerebras’ revenue in 2027, even as AWS, coding companies and security customers grow faster as a percentage of the business. He did not provide a projected revenue share for any customer. [3]
Cerebras said it signed six deals worth more than $30 million in the quarter and named Figma, Cognition, Lovable, Block, AlphaSense and GSK among customers with new or expanded agreements. It also said its AWS service is expected to become available through Amazon Bedrock in the first quarter of 2027. [1][3]
Customer concentration remains a material risk. In its most recently available quarterly filing before the second-quarter report, Cerebras said G42 accounted for 11% of first-quarter revenue and Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence accounted for 63%. The filing also identified OpenAI, G42, MBZUAI and AWS as significant relationships whose loss or reduction could harm results. The company has not yet disclosed second-quarter revenue percentages by customer in the earnings release. [4]
A small float adds to the volatility #
Cerebras completed its IPO in May by selling 34.5 million Class A shares at $185 each and raising about $6.4 billion in gross proceeds. As of August 13, third-party market data showed 226.53 million shares outstanding and an estimated public float of 80.43 million shares. Short interest was reported at 12.9 million shares, or 16.0% of the float. [5][6]
The IPO prospectus provides for staged releases of previously restricted securities. Securities not released earlier are scheduled to become eligible for sale at the earlier of the second trading day after the company reports third-quarter 2026 earnings or 180 days after the prospectus date. With the prospectus dated May 13, that 180-day date is November 9, 2026. [7]
That structure leaves the stock exposed to changes in both expectations and available supply. Cerebras finished Wednesday with a market capitalization of about $59.4 billion based on the reported share count, while its full-year core revenue guidance implies a valuation of roughly 67 times the midpoint of that forecast. [5]
Companies mentioned #
Further sources #
[[1] Cerebras Systems’ August 12, 2026 second-quarter earnings release, including GA… ↗](https://investors.cerebras.ai/node/7286/pdf)
[[2] StockAnalysis market data showing CBRS at $262.06 at the August 12 close and $2… ↗](https://stockanalysis.com/stocks/cbrs/statistics/)
[[3] Transcript of Cerebras Systems’ second-quarter 2026 earnings call, including ca… ↗](https://stockanalysis.com/stocks/cbrs/transcripts/686677-q2-2026/)
[[4] Cerebras Systems’ first-quarter 2026 Form 10-Q, including disclosed customer re… ↗](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/2021728/000162828026044981/cbrs-20260331.htm)
[[5] StockAnalysis statistics updated August 13, 2026, including shares outstanding,… ↗](https://stockanalysis.com/stocks/cbrs/statistics/)
[[6] StockAnalysis short-interest data for Cerebras, including 12.90 million shares … ↗](https://stockanalysis.com/stocks/cbrs/statistics/)+1 more
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