Cerebras Systems delivered its second earnings report as a public company Wednesday, raising its full-year guidance on the back of what its CEO calls “through the roof” AI demand. But the news wasn’t enough to hold the stock up: shares plunged about 12% in extended trading.
The company, which listed on the Nasdaq in May, reported $210 million in core revenue for the June quarter, along with a GAAP revenue figure of $180.1 million. Cerebras also recorded a net loss of $450.5 million for the quarter, a sharp swing from the year-ago period, when it posted a profit of $309.5 million, or $1.91 per share.
Looking ahead, Cerebras guided to third-quarter core revenue of between $214 million and $216 million, above the average analyst estimate of $212.6 million, according to LSEG. The company also lifted its full-year outlook, now calling for core revenue of $880 million to $890 million, up from a prior range of $855 million to $865 million.
Fast inference premium
Cerebras is positioning itself as a challenger to Nvidia in AI inference, particularly for applications that require “low latency” — the quick response times needed for interactive tasks. The company calls this “fast inference,” and it says customers are willing to pay a premium for it.
CEO Andrew Feldman said in an interview that Cerebras was able to increase the AI output of its systems, helping to support pricing. The company said its core gross margin will expand to between 38% and 40% in the current quarter, a metric investors have been watching closely.
“Gross margins are in a good spot, and growing, because fast inference is priced at a premium,” Feldman said.
Backlog and growth outlook
Cerebras said it has $25.4 billion in remaining performance obligations, which it described as a sign of “extraordinary future demand.” The company also said it expects revenue to triple in the next fiscal year.
Feldman said scaling up should bring operational efficiencies, including better component pricing and more efficient manufacturing. “All of those point up and to the right,” he said.
The company’s cloud business, which offers access to its chips, brought in $126 million in revenue during the June quarter.
In recent weeks, Cerebras announced a partnership with Nvidia rival Advanced Micro Devices, with products entering production later this year. It also said OpenAI can use its chips to serve its latest model, GPT 5.6-Sol.
Cerebras priced its May IPO at $185 per share, raising $6.4 billion. The stock peaked that month but has since pulled back. It closed Wednesday at $262.06, still up 42% from its IPO price.
Source: www.cnbc.com — https://www.cnbc.com/2026/08/12/cerebras-cbrs-q2-earnings-report-2026.html
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