NEW YORK: Cerebras Systems Inc expects to price its US initial public offering (IPO) at US$185 per share, according to people familiar with the matter, as the artificial intelligence (AI) chipmaker seizes on the surging demand for semiconductors.
The company is set to price its shares above the offered range later on Wednesday, the people said, asking not to be identified as the information isn’t public.
Cerebras marketed 30 million shares in the IPO for US$150 to US$160 each, after revising the range and number of shares higher on Monday.
Deliberations are ongoing, no final decisions have been made and the company could still price the offering higher, the people said. At that price, the listing would raise US$5.55bil and give Cerebras a market value of about US$40bil, based on the shares offered and outstanding in its filings.
Accounting for restricted share units, employee options and warrants, the company would have a fully diluted value of around US$49bil, according to Bloomberg calculations.
The IPO has drawn orders for more than 20 times the number of shares available, people familiar with the matter have said.
Cerebras and its bankers have been seeking to manage the burgeoning interest in its upcoming listing.
The company told institutional investors placing IPO orders to specify the number of shares and the maximum price they’re willing to pay, in order to gauge the true level of demand, people familiar with the matter have said.
Cerebras is set to join a cohort of public chipmaking companies seeking to challenge market-leader Nvidia Corp.
Cerebras already has ties to top AI names including Amazon.com Inc, which this year said it plans to use its chips alongside Trainium processors to run AI software, and OpenAI, which released its first model running on Cerebras chips in February.
OpenAI has 33.4 million warrants for Cerebras shares, some of which are subject to vesting conditions including delivery dates for compute and the chipmaker’s market value exceeding US$40bil, the filings show. — Bloomberg
