Home / Business and Economy / Cerebras Stock Plummets Amidst OpenAI Loss to Nvidia
Cerebras Stock Plummets Amidst OpenAI Loss to Nvidia
3 Oct
Summary
- Cerebras stock dropped nearly 20% this week to its lowest since IPO.
- OpenAI chose Nvidia GPUs over Cerebras hardware for its GPT-6.1 model.
- Insider share lockup expirations added pressure to Cerebras' stock.
Cerebras Systems Inc. stock experienced a significant downturn, falling nearly 20% this week to its lowest valuation since its market debut in May 2026. The company's shares have now dropped by over 50% from their initial post-IPO surge. This slump is largely attributed to a recent report indicating that OpenAI will use Nvidia's graphics processing units for its "Ultrafast" mode of the GPT-6.1 Sol AI model, rather than Cerebras' specialized hardware.
The loss of a key inference workload for OpenAI represents a substantial setback for Cerebras, which had initially aimed to provide an alternative to Nvidia in the AI chip market. The company's stock closed at $166.43 on Friday, adding to the downward pressure exacerbated by the expiration of post-IPO lockup periods for certain insider shares. This expiration, which began on Wednesday, made up to 19.4 million additional shares available on the market.
Executives, including CEO Andrew Feldman and CTO Sean Lie, have been selling shares. Between August 20 and September 25, 2026, they sold over $240 million in Class A shares. This trend of executive stock sales, coupled with the loss of the OpenAI contract, has significantly impacted investor confidence and Cerebras' market capitalization, which has fallen from an initial $95 billion to just over $39 billion.
