Cerebras Slips Below $185 IPO Price as Lockup Ends

Cerebras shares fell 8.87% to $177.65, below their $185 IPO price, on the same day its post-IPO lockup expired and two executives filed to sell stock.

Cerebras Systems (NASDAQ: CBRS) last traded at $177.65, down 8.87% from a $194.95 prior close, putting the AI chipmaker under its $185 IPO offer price, according to 24/7 Wall St. The shares had opened their first day of trading at $350, meaning early public buyers have lost most of that premium. From the May 14, 2026 close of $311.07, the stock is down 42.89%. A stock that was pitched as a challenger to Nvidia now trades below where its underwriters priced it.

24/7 Wall St. reports that three separate events landed on September 30, 2026: the post-IPO lockup expired at 6 a.m. Eastern, making about 19.4 million shares eligible for sale; two senior officers filed Form 144 notices covering about $84.3 million of stock; and a SemiAnalysis claim surfaced questioning whether OpenAI's newest ultrafast model runs on Cerebras hardware. COO Dhiraj Mallick filed to sell 396,000 shares worth about $77.9 million, while CFO Robert Patrick Komin Jr. filed to sell 32,500 shares worth about $6.39 million. A Form 144 records intent only; a later Form 4 would confirm an executed sale.

Insiders commonly sell when a lockup ends, but the hardware report strikes at the IPO story itself. 24/7 Wall St. notes OpenAI signed a multi-year deal for 750 MW of inference compute worth more than $20 billion, and CEO Andrew Feldman said on the August 12 call that OpenAI will "stay a big part next year." OpenAI had previously confirmed an earlier ultrafast model ran on Cerebras systems, but the new claim suggests its fastest model may run on standard GPUs instead. At 68x trailing sales and 217x forward earnings, the publication argues the stock leaves little room for doubt about its anchor customer.

The underlying business is still growing, per 24/7 Wall St.: second-quarter core revenue rose 103% to $209.9 million, and remaining performance obligations reached $25.4 billion. Analysts remain upbeat, with 3 strong buy and 7 buy ratings and an average price target of $291.64 — optimism that rests on the same OpenAI ramp now in question. The publication flags two markers to watch: Form 4 filings showing whether Mallick and Komin actually sold and at what price, and a direct statement from OpenAI or Cerebras on which hardware runs the new model. A close back above $185 alongside third-quarter core revenue inside the $214–216 million guidance range would suggest the selloff was mainly lockup supply. Separately in IPO land, The Economic Times reports Moneyview listed at a 64% premium over its Rs 34 issue price and rallied as much as 82% after being subscribed roughly 102 times.