Cerebras Systems stock CBRS climbed about 6% in premarket trading Monday, recovering some of last week’s losses after OpenAI CEO Sam Altman sought to reassure investors that the AI chipmaker remains a “close partner” of the artificial intelligence company.
The rebound followed a sharp selloff last week, when Cerebras shares plunged 20% to their lowest level after reports said OpenAI would use Nvidia graphics processing units to power the “Ultrafast” mode of its GPT-6.1 Sol model rather than Cerebras chips.
“There is some speculation about our partnership with Cerebras,” Altman said in a post on X on Friday.
“Cerebras is a close partner, and we have a deep engagement pushing on the frontiers of speed.”
Cerebras shares have fallen more than 40% since their Nasdaq debut in May, putting the company under pressure to demonstrate that its relationship with OpenAI can translate into sustained commercial growth.
Analysts call selloff overdone; stick to outlook
Barclays analyst Tom O’Malley said OpenAI’s “relationship remains strong” with Cerebras, arguing that concerns about the partnership may have been overstated.
While Nvidia is running OpenAI’s GPT-6.1 Ultrafast, Cerebras remains the preferred provider, although its ability to meet demand is constrained by supply, O’Malley said.
He described the recent selloff as “overdone as highlighted by Sam Altman’s post.”
Freedom Capital also upgraded Cerebras to Buy from Hold last week, calling the selloff over concerns about its OpenAI relationship an overreaction.
Analyst Paul Meeks set a $209 price target, implying more than 25% upside from Friday’s close.
Citi analysts also maintained their view of Cerebras’ revenue outlook for 2026 through 2028, saying it remains “unchanged.”
“We believe frontier-AI labs’ latest models would initially roll out on internal chips before running on third-party or Cerebras cloud, so it’s too early to read much into it,” they said in a note on Friday morning.
The analysts nevertheless cautioned that the stock’s next leg higher could depend on improvements in profitability.
“We believe the stock’s ability to outperform is increasingly tied to evidence that gross margins are stabilizing. Any further delay in the gross margin trough would likely weigh on sentiment, particularly given Cerebras’ premium valuation,” they added.
Cerebras bets on fast AI inference
Cerebras has positioned itself as an alternative to Nvidia by developing large-scale processors and AI systems designed to run models faster than traditional graphics processing units.
The company claims its flagship Wafer Scale Engine 3 can deliver faster performance than Nvidia GPUs for certain AI workloads.
Its relationship with OpenAI remains particularly significant.
Cerebras signed a $10 billion agreement with OpenAI in January to provide 750 megawatts of computing power through 2028.
Mizuho reiterates Outperform rating; bets on fast-growing AI inference market
Mizuho reiterated its Outperform rating and $300 price target, pointing to the growing market for fast AI inference workloads.
The firm estimates that the fast-inference total addressable market could reach $550 billion by 2030, representing a 291% compound annual growth rate and about 20% of all AI workloads.
Fast inference has become an important revenue opportunity for Cerebras because industry token pricing is reportedly six to 10 times higher than standard tokens.
Potential applications range from trading and defence to software development, where faster AI responses could reduce coding time.
OpenAI has reported inference speeds up to 14 times faster using Cerebras technology, reinforcing the company’s position as a partner focused on AI response speed.
Mizuho also sees Meta Platforms as a potential future inference customer.
Mizuho maintained its bullish view despite potential share-unlock pressures, projecting that AI fast-inference data-centre deployments could help Cerebras generate $13.5 billion in revenue by 2029.
The post Why is Cerebras stock rising on Monday? Sam Altman holds the clue appeared first on Invezz
