Cerebras stock hits record low of $146.98, down 62% from its first-day high

Cerebras Systems shares sank to a post-IPO low between $146.90 and $146.98 on October 12, 2026. That leaves the AI chip designer roughly 21% below its $185 IPO price and approximately 62% under its first-day intraday high of $386.

From $386 to under $147

The stock (NASDAQ: CBRS) debuted on May 13, 2026, with an IPO price of $185 per share. The company sold 30 million shares in the offering, raising between $5.55 billion and $6.4 billion.

Shares opened at $350, touched an intraday high of $386, and closed at $311.07. That close represented a 68% gain over the offering price.

At its first-day peak, the market valued Cerebras at around $95 billion. By early October, Cerebras’ market capitalization had fallen to approximately $39 billion.

Three pressure points

Lock-up expiration. IPO lock-ups bar insiders and early backers from selling shares for a set period after a listing. When that window closes, a wave of previously restricted stock can suddenly hit the market.

Insider selling. Insider sales of approximately $84 million were planned around October 1, 2026.

Nvidia competition. Over the summer, a report from SemiAnalysis indicated that critical workloads were shifting from Cerebras to Nvidia’s technology.

How Cerebras got here

Cerebras was founded in 2015 and is based in Sunnyvale, California. Its core idea is architecturally bold: instead of slicing a silicon wafer into many small chips, it uses the full wafer as a single AI accelerator.

The road to the public market was not smooth. Cerebras had sought to go public in 2024, but that effort hit regulatory delays tied to a significant investment from UAE-based Group 42.

When the company finally listed in 2026, its customer roster included OpenAI and Amazon Web Services, with multi-year contracts covering substantial compute capacity.

What this means for AI chip investors

Cerebras went from a 68% first-day pop to trading below its offering price within five months. Anyone who received IPO allocations at $185 and held is now underwater. Anyone who bought in the opening frenzy near $350 or higher is sitting on far steeper losses.

Several things are worth watching from here. First, whether insider selling continues beyond the roughly $84 million planned around the start of October. Second, any updates on the OpenAI and AWS contracts, including signs of expansion or reduction in committed capacity. Third, further independent analysis, like the SemiAnalysis report, on where AI labs are placing their critical workloads.

For now, the $146.90 to $146.98 range marks the floor Cerebras has hit since listing.