AI chipmaker Cerebras Systems has secured a massive $1.1 billion Series G round, even as its much-anticipated IPO remains on hold. The new funding round values the Silicon Valley-based company at $8.1 billion and highlights just how strong investor demand for AI infrastructure has become.
The financing was co-led by Fidelity and Atreides Management, with backing from Tiger Global, Valor Equity Partners, and 1789 Capital. With this latest raise, Cerebras has now pulled in nearly $2 billion since its founding in 2015, cementing its place as one of Nvidia’s top rivals in the AI hardware race. Its last funding event was in 2021, when it raised $250 million at a valuation just over $4 billion.
Growth Driven by AI Inference Services
CEO and co-founder Andrew Feldman said the company’s sharp growth over the past year is directly tied to the launch of its AI inference services. Inference—using AI models to generate real-world outputs—has quickly become a core business driver.
By mid-2024, Feldman and his team saw what he described as a tipping point: AI models were no longer experimental but genuinely useful at scale. That insight led Cerebras to double down on infrastructure, expand hiring, and launch its inference cloud in August 2024. Since then, demand has surged, pushing the company to rapidly grow its capacity.
In 2025 alone, Cerebras has opened five new data centers in locations such as Dallas, Oklahoma City, and Santa Clara, with further expansions planned for Montreal and multiple European sites. The fresh capital will primarily be used to build out these facilities and expand U.S.-based manufacturing hubs, alongside undisclosed technology advancements.
IPO Still in the Cards
Cerebras originally filed for an IPO on September 30, 2024. However, the listing stalled after the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) began reviewing a $335 million investment from Abu Dhabi-based G42. Additional delays surfaced in early 2025 due to unfilled roles at CFIUS following President Donald Trump’s return to office.
Despite the setbacks, Feldman confirmed that going public remains the goal. The strategy, he explained, is to secure a major late-stage round from public-market-focused investors ahead of an eventual listing. This approach mirrors the path of many high-growth startups preparing to transition into the public markets.
“We chose a small number of leaders who will support us not just in this round but through the IPO process,” Feldman noted, adding that becoming a public company is still very much in Cerebras’ sights.
With nearly a decade of research and billions in capital behind it, Cerebras is betting big that its AI chips and cloud systems can fuel the next wave of demand in artificial intelligence—while positioning itself to compete head-on with Nvidia as the industry enters a new phase of scale.
