Cerebras Raises $1.1B at $8.1B Valuation in Series G

Overview

Cerebras Systems has secured $1.1 billion in new funding, lifting the Silicon Valley AI chip maker’s valuation to $8.1 billion and postponing its move to the public markets for now.

Founded in 2015, Cerebras positions itself as a challenger to Nvidia with purpose-built chips, systems, and cloud services for AI workloads. The company filed for an IPO in September 2024, but said the fresh capital will allow it to accelerate growth privately.

Round Details and Investors

The oversubscribed Series G round was led by Fidelity Management & Research Company. Returning investors included Altimeter, Alpha Wave, and Benchmark, alongside Tiger Global, Valor Equity Partners, and 1789 Capital.

How Cerebras Plans to Use the Capital

• Advance AI processor design, packaging, and system engineering.
• Build next-generation AI supercomputers.
• Expand U.S. manufacturing footprint.
• Add data center capacity to meet surging demand.

Inference Services and Performance

A key driver is the company’s AI inference services, launched in August 2024. Cerebras cites third-party research from Artificial Analysis indicating its system delivers inference speeds up to 20 times faster than Nvidia GPUs.

Artificial Analysis CEO Micah Hill said the firm has tested providers across hundreds of models and found Cerebras consistently on top.

Data Center Expansion

To support demand, Cerebras in March announced six additional inference data centers slated to open across North America and Europe in 2025, with locations including Minneapolis, Oklahoma City, and Montreal.

Partners, Customers, and Ecosystem

The company pointed to a growing roster of partners and customers such as AWS, Meta, IBM, GlaxoSmithKline, the U.S. Department of Energy, and the U.S. Department of Defense.

On the developer platform Hugging Face, Cerebras says it is the leading inference provider, now handling more than five million requests each month.

Financing Timeline and IPO Plans

With this round, Cerebras’ total funding raised over the past decade approaches $2 billion. Co-founder and CEO Andrew Feldman said long-time backers see a generational opportunity in AI and have chosen to double down on the business.

Feldman told Reuters that Cerebras still intends to go public. He said the timeline was affected by a national security review of a $335 million investment tied to Abu Dhabi, which he said has been cleared by the Trump administration. He added that raising additional capital late in the IPO journey is common among high-growth companies.

The Bigger Picture

The capital infusion underscores investor appetite for alternatives to Nvidia and intensifies the race to deliver faster, more efficient compute for AI applications.