How to Invest in Cerebras Systems Stock in 2024

Published Apr 25, 2024

Investor

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Cerebras Systems is making a name for itself as a potential competitor to Nvidia.

The company is known for developing the world's largest computer chip, which is designed to accelerate artificial intelligence computations.

Cerebras has also been making headlines regarding a potential IPO in 2024.

However, if you don't want to wait until it becomes publicly traded to invest, this article will explain how you can buy Cerebras Systems stock before its IPO.

What does Cerebras Systems do?

Last year, Cerebras Systems announced its $100 million supercomputer was operational. It was the first of nine such devices being built to provide alternatives to Nvidia (NVDA).

This is a novel approach to satisfy the demand for computing power for AI services.

Instead of buying the hardware and software licenses from Nvidia, customers can use the supercomputer over the cloud on a pay-per-use basis.

This solution is particularly beneficial for smaller organizations or researchers who run large-scale experiments intermittently. It's also attractive to anyone who doesn't have the resources or expertise to manage their own hardware.

In addition to its supercomputers, Cerebras Systems builds chips and provides other computing systems and services for AI and deep learning applications.

While it lacks the broad range of applications and flexibility of Nvidia's offerings, it is a threat to the world's largest chipmaker in some very specific use cases.

Additionally, recent collaborations between Cerebras and leading chipmakers Taiwan Semiconductors (TSM) and Qualcomm (QCOM) may lead to a more diverse product offering.

How accredited investors can buy Cerebras Systems stock

Hiive is a secondary marketplace platform that allows accredited investors to buy shares of private, VC-backed companies.

Accreditation requirements

To qualify as an accredited investor, you must meet one of the following criteria:

Have an annual income of $200,000 individually or $300,000 jointly.

Have a net worth that exceeds $1,000,000, excluding your main residence.

Be a qualifying financial professional.

Out of over 2,000 private companies listed on Hiive, Cerebras Systems is one of the most active:

There are 15 unique listings of Cerebras stock as of the time of writing.

Every listing is created by a different seller who sets their own asking price and number of shares available. Sellers often include current or former employees, venture capitalists, and angel investors.

Buyers can add stocks to their watchlist, place bids, or accept a seller's asking price as listed. There are no fees for buyers on Hiive.

After registering, buyers are able to see the complete order book for every listing on Hiive. This includes the prevailing bid, all asking prices, shares available, and recent transaction data.

See the order book for Cerebras after registering with the button below:

Can retail investors buy Cerebras Systems stock?

Unfortunately, there is no way for retail investors to invest directly in Cerebras Systems, though there are two publicly traded companies that may benefit from Cerebras' success.

Given its background in designing smartphone chips, Qualcomm (QCOM) is well-positioned to capitalize when generative AI comes to smartphones, PCs, and automobiles.

However, the company needed a partner with the capacity to provide training grounds.

Qualcomm is an expert in power efficient processing, specifically for AI and generative AI models. Together, Cerebras and Qualcomm believe that they can further increase the efficiency of inference processing than either could do on their own.

Additionally, Cerebras uses Taiwan Semiconductor's (TSM) 5nm chips for all of its Wafer Scale Engine 3 (WSE-3) processors. If there is increasing demand for Cerebras' products, its suppliers (including TSMC) will also profit.

Qualcomm and TSMC are very large companies ($188 billion and $652 billion, respectively). Investing in either of these companies is a very indirect way to gain exposure to Cerebras' upside.

Retail investors are probably better off waiting for the company's upcoming IPO.

When will Cerebras Systems IPO?

As mentioned above, Cerebras has discussed a potential IPO.

The company selected Citigroup to lead its IPO and is loosely targeting the second half of 2024 as the earliest it may go public.

The company most recently raised capital in November 2021 at a $4 billion valuation.

Since that round, however, Cerebras has formed partnerships with the U.S. and Abu Dhabi governments, the UAE's G42, Mayo Clinic, AstraZeneca, and others.

It is, therefore, reasonable to assume that Cerebras is generating significantly more revenue now than it was back then, and it is likely to IPO at a valuation far higher than the $4 billion its most recent investors paid.

When it does go public, you'll need a brokerage account to buy it. If you're in the market, check out our article on the best brokerage accounts in 2024.

Who founded Cerebras Systems?

Andrew Feldman, Gary Lauterback, Michael James, Sean Lie, and Jean-Philippe Fricker founded Cerebras Systems in 2015.

All five of these co-founders worked together at SeaMicro, a company specializing in computer servers, which was sold to AMD in 2012 for $334 million.

All five remain at the company: