Cerebras Systems logo is seen in this illustration taken March 31, 2023. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration
(Reuters) -AI chip startup Cerebras Systems, which competes with industry leader Nvidia in the booming AI chip market, on Friday filed to withdraw its plans for an initial public offering in the United States, effective immediately.
Its withdrawal comes as U.S. IPO activity picks up in recent months, reversing an earlier slowdown caused by trade-policy uncertainty, with recent listings, such as that of data center real estate investment trust Fermi, getting warm receptions amid surging investor enthusiasm for AI-related stocks.
"Given that Cerebras just very recently completed a sizeable fund raise, it is of no surprise that they are holding off to pursue the IPO at this time,"said Josef Schuster, CEO of IPO research firm IPOX.
Cerebras had on Tuesday said it raised $1.1 billion in a funding round led by Fidelity Management & Research and Atreides Management, valuing the company at $8.1 billion. The round added investors Tiger Global, Valor Equity Partners and 1789 Capital, the fund in which U.S. President Donald Trump's son is a partner.
But CEO Andrew Feldman said at the time the company still plans to hold a public offering.
Last year, Cerebras filed for an initial public offering on the Nasdaq. The company’s highly anticipated listing was delayed by a U.S. national security review of a $335 million investment by G42, an Abu Dhabi-based cloud computing and AI company.
"We believe this is more a company-specific strategic decision and does not tell us anything about the state of U.S. IPO sentiment, which we view as exceptionally strong," Schuster added.
Sunnyvale, California-based Cerebras Systems makes high-performance AI chips and systems designed to speed up training and running large AI models.
(Reporting by Prakhar Srivastava in Bengaluru; Editing by Alan Barona and Sahal Muhammed)
