Cerebras stock was up 6.3 percent in premarket trading at $177 per share, nearly half its post-IPO high. The company's market capitalisation stood at just over $39 billion, down from $95 billion when it debuted on the Nasdaq in May.
The shares had tumbled 20 percent last week to their lowest level after reports emerged that OpenAI would use Nvidia graphics processing units to power the 'Ultrafast' mode of GPT-6.1 Sol, rather than Cerebras' own chips. The news cast a shadow over the January deal in which Cerebras agreed to supply OpenAI with 750 megawatts of computing power through 2028, a contract valued at $10 billion.
Altman sought to quell the concern in a post on X on Friday. "There is some speculation about our partnership with Cerebras," he wrote. "Cerebras is a close partner, and we have a deep engagement pushing on the frontiers of speed." The stock rose nearly 3 percent in extended trading following the post.
Citi analysts said in a note Friday morning that their view on Cerebras' revenue outlook between 2026 and 2028 remained unchanged. They noted that frontier AI labs' latest models typically first run on internal chips before moving to third-party or Cerebras cloud infrastructure, adding that it was too early to draw conclusions. The analysts cautioned that the stock's ability to outperform depends on evidence that gross margins are stabilising, warning that any further delay in the gross margin trough would weigh on sentiment given Cerebras' premium valuation.
Cerebras, a competitor to Nvidia, sells large computer chips and AI systems designed to run models faster than traditional GPUs. It claims its flagship Wafer Scale Engine 3 outperforms Nvidia's GPUs.