Cerebras shares plunge 18% after missing quarterly estimates

Aug 12, 2026

Cerebras Systems shares plunged over 18% after the chipmaker reported second-quarter revenue of $180 million, missing Wall Street estimates of $194 million. While cloud revenue quadrupled to $126 million, hardware sales fell to $54.1 million, signaling lumpy demand. Gross margins also faced pressure, dropping to 40.6%. Despite raising its full-year revenue guidance to $880 million–$890 million, the mixed results fueled investor doubts about Cerebras' ability to scale and challenge Nvidia.

Q2 revenue miss

▪Cerebras Systems reported an adjusted loss of 5 cents per share, which was narrower than the LSEG consensus analyst estimate of a 17-cent loss.
▪Cerebras Systems reported second-quarter revenue of $180 million, missing the LSEG consensus analyst estimate of $194 million.

Stock decline after earnings

▪Cerebras Systems shares fell over 18% in premarket trading on August 13, 2026, as mixed quarterly results tested the company's AI growth narrative.
▪Cerebras Systems shares fell approximately 14% to 16% in extended trading on August 12, 2026, following its second quarterly earnings report since its initial public offering.

Hardware sales fell

▪Cerebras Systems hardware sales declined to $54.1 million in the second quarter, down from $70.3 million in the same period a year earlier.
▪The decline in Cerebras Systems hardware sales indicates lumpy demand as the company works to popularize its novel wafer-scale engine chip design.

Cloud revenue quadrupled

▪Cerebras Systems is racing to expand chip volumes to support a $20 billion multiyear agreement to provide AI compute to OpenAI.
▪Cerebras Systems cloud business revenue roughly quadrupled to $126 million during the second quarter compared to the year-ago quarter.

Gross margin pressure

▪Cerebras Systems Chief Financial Officer Bob Komin stated that second-quarter adjusted gross margin was lower by about 5 percentage points due to higher costs incurred to rent computing capacity.
▪Cerebras Systems adjusted gross margin fell to 40.6% in the second quarter, down from 46.5% in the preceding three months.

Raised full-year guidance

▪Cerebras Systems raised its annual adjusted gross margin projection to a range of 41% to 43%, up from its previous forecast of 38% to 41%.
▪Cerebras Systems raised its full-year 2026 core revenue guidance to a range of $880 million to $890 million, up from its prior range of $855 million to $865 million.