News & Updates
The latest news and updates from companies in the WLTH portfolio.
Cerebras Has a $25.4 Billion Backlog, and One OpenAI Agreement Is Behind Much of It
By most measures, Cerebras Systems (NASDAQ:CBRS) delivered an outstanding second quarter. The artificial intelligence (AI) computing specialist grew its non-GAAP (adjusted) revenue 103% year over year to $209.9 million. Its inference cloud business nearly quadrupled, and management raised its full-year outlook to a range of $880 million to $890 million in adjusted revenue. Missed Nvidia in 2009? This Rare Signal Is Flashing Again. In 2009, a "Double Down" signal flashed for a little-known chipmaker called Nvidia. For the first time in years, that same "Total Conviction" signal is flashing for a company 1/100th the size of Nvidia. Continue " But the most important number in the mid-August update wasn't on the income statement at all. Cerebras ended June with $25.4 billion in remaining performance obligations, the backlog of contracted work it hasn't yet delivered or recognized as revenue. That's nearly 29 times the revenue management expects for all of 2026, a figure lifted by data center costs passed through to OpenAI. A figure that large deserves scrutiny. The company's own filings say where to look: at a single agreement with OpenAI. Image source: Getty Images. The backlog arrived almost all at once In December 2025, Cerebras signed a master relationship agreement with the ChatGPT maker under which OpenAI committed to purchase 750 megawatts of computing capacity for AI inference -- a deal Cerebras has valued at more than $20 billion. OpenAI also holds an option to buy an additional 1.25 gigawatts of capacity by the end of 2030. Remaining performance obligations were $24.6 billion at the close of 2025, then edged up to $25.0 billion in March and $25.4 billion in June. The balance grew only about 3% over the first half of 2026. Nearly all of it was on the books before 2026 began. And Cerebras says in its latest quarterly filing that a significant amount of the balance is attributable to its obligations under the OpenAI agreement. Cerebras recognized $56.8 million of revenue under the arrangement in the second quarter, or about 32% of the company's $180.1 million in revenue under generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), which grew 74% year over year. When does the backlog become revenue? The backlog converts slowly, by design. Cerebras expects to recognize only about 22% of the $25.4 billion (about $5.6 billion) over the 24 months ending June 30, 2028. Another 43% should arrive between months 25 and 48, with the rest coming later. Of course, the timing can shift at the customer's request.
Coatue Opened Positions in Intel and Cerebras. Is the AI Chip Trade Broadening Beyond NVIDIA?
Coatue Management's Q2 filing disclosed a new position in Intel and, for the first time, a reportable position in newly public Cerebras. Coatue reported 12,084,027 Intel shares and roughly 7.01 million Cerebras shares at June 30. Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) offers manufacturing and established distribution, while Cerebras Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:CBRS) offers a radically different wafer-scale architecture. Close-up of Silicon Die are being Extracted from Semiconductor Wafer and Attached to Substrate by Pick and Place Machine. Computer Chip Manufacturing at Fab. Semiconductor Packaging Process. Intel's bull case is strategic relevance. Its CPU franchise, foundry ambitions, advanced packaging, and domestic manufacturing footprint could benefit as governments and customers seek more supply options. The new Coatue position joins a broader increase in professional participation: Insider Monkey counted 138 hedge funds holding INTC at June 30, up from 112 at March 31. Its bear case is capital intensity and competitive execution. Intel must spend heavily while defending share against AMD and proving its foundry can win external customers. Recent equity financing adds dilution, and a turnaround can consume cash for years before margins recover. Coatue's filing shows quarter-end ownership, not when shares were bought or why. Cerebras gives the diversification thesis more direct AI exposure. Its Q2 non-GAAP core revenue reached $209.9 million, up 103% year over year, and cloud-service revenue grew rapidly as customers rented inference rather than purchased hardware. As a new public company, CBRS had 78 hedge funds in Q2. Coatue's disclosed position was worth roughly $1.5 billion, making it economically meaningful. The counterargument is volatility and business mix. Cerebras's total Q2 revenue was about $180.1 million under GAAP presentation, while hardware sales fell 23% to $54.1 million and shares dropped sharply after results. Cloud growth can be attractive but may require the company to fund capacity and accept lower near-term margins. Customer concentration and competition from NVIDIA ecosystems remain central risks. Intel's August 14 short-interest snapshot showed 135.69 million shares sold short, with 1.26 days to cover; estimates put that near 2.7% of shares outstanding. It predates the public analysis of Coatue's filing. The filing supports a broadening thesis, not a verdict. Intel must prove manufacturing economics; Cerebras must prove scalable cloud margins. NVIDIA's dominance weakens only if challengers translate technical alternatives into durable, profitable customer adoption.
The Anthropic IPO May Be Right Around the Corner. Here's What Investors Need to Know.
This year has been a major one for initial public offerings, even producing the biggest IPO on record: the Space Exploration Technologies operation. Including the exercise of an overallotment option, SpaceX raised more than $85 billion and entered the market with a trillion-dollar valuation. Now, all eyes are focused on the next IPO, one that could be even larger than that of SpaceX. I'm talking about the upcoming Anthropic market debut. The artificial intelligence (AI) lab, maker of the famous AI assistant Claude, confidentially filed a draft registration statement with regulators in June. And news reports suggest an IPO may be right around the corner. Here's what investors need to know. Missed Nvidia in 2009? This Rare Signal Is Flashing Again. In 2009, a "Double Down" signal flashed for a little-known chipmaker called Nvidia. For the first time in years, that same "Total Conviction" signal is flashing for a company 1/100th the size of Nvidia. Continue " Image source: Getty Images. Why IPOs spark excitement So, first, a quick look at why the launch of companies involved in AI -- from SpaceX to AI chip designer Cerebras Systems -- has sparked excitement and drawn investors' attention. It's important to note that IPOs generally garner attention as they present new investing opportunities. On top of this, the AI market, heading toward a value of $3 trillion in just a few years, according to analysts, represents a massive growth opportunity. Publicly traded AI leaders such as Nvidia and Amazon have seen revenue skyrocket in recent years, so investors are eager to get in on the next new AI story. Now, let's consider Anthropic and what you as an investor need to know. The company is the maker of the Claude AI assistant, the popular Claude Code coding tool, and other AI-driven products, and these are in high demand. TechCrunch, citing an Anthropic spokesperson, reported that Claude paid subscriptions have more than doubled in 2026. In May, Anthropic raised $65 billion in Series H funding, pushing its valuation to $965 billion. At the time, the company said its revenue run rate had surpassed $47 billion. AI labs such as Anthropic and OpenAI have been key players in the AI story, calling for a ramp-up in AI infrastructure from cloud partners such as Amazon Web Services (AWS). This increase in compute results in higher revenue for them -- more compute allows Anthropic and OpenAI to supercharge the performance of their large language models and serve more customers.
Cerebras plans 165 MW Finland AI data center with first 50 MW under construction
Cerebras Systems (NASDAQ: CBRS) announced a 165 MW AI data center in Mikkeli, Finland, with Compute Nordic Finland. The initial 50 MW of contracted IT capacity is already under construction. The partners plan to increase capacity from 50 MW to 80 MW before reaching the full 165 MW. Cerebras said multiple service orders cover the capacity, with each carrying a seven-year term. An assessment cited by Cerebras estimated €1.0 billion to €1.7 billion of regional investment at full build-out. The project could support 80 to 250 direct permanent jobs and generate between €0.8 million and €2.5 million in annual property-tax revenue. Stay ahead of AI infrastructure deals. Get Blockspace in your inbox. Seven-year orders support the build-out Compute Nordic Finland CEO Pyry Virrantaus said the phased project is backed by existing demand rather than projected customer interest. "This partnership with Cerebras is not a speculative bet on future demand -- it's a contractually committed, phased build-out that reflects exactly how much AI compute the market needs today and where that need is heading," Virrantaus said in the project announcement. Compute Nordic Finland will oversee development, operations, customer relationships and program governance. Cerebras intends to use the facility for its high-density AI compute platform. The partners have identified permanent positions in site operations, power and cooling engineering, networking, security, and facility management. The employment estimate comes from a Ramboll market study and impact assessment dated September 12, 2025. Closed-loop cooling and heat recovery Closed-loop cooling is part of the Mikkeli facility's design, recirculating water instead of continuously drawing it from the municipal supply. It also incorporates heat-recovery infrastructure intended to make thermal energy from the compute systems available to the surrounding community. "Our architecture is built to get more useful AI output out of every megawatt we deploy," Cerebras CEO and co-founder Andrew Feldman said. "Mikkeli lets us pair that efficiency with a data centre designed for closed-loop cooling and heat reuse from the ground up." Cerebras did not provide a commissioning schedule for each phase or disclose pricing under the service orders. The announcement also did not say when the heat-recovery system would begin supplying the community. Mikkeli anchors Cerebras' European expansion The project accounts for most of the 200 MW of European capacity that Cerebras said in July it expected to reach by the end of 2027. That plan includes sites in France and the Nordics, and OpenAI workloads are expected to use some of the capacity.
Cathie Wood Just Bought $17 Million of Cerebras Stock. Wall Street Sees 59% Upside.
Cathie Wood is doubling down on Cerebras Systems (CBRS) at a time when the artificial intelligence (AI) chip stock is struggling to regain its footing. Ark Invest bought another 93,290 Cerebras shares on Aug. 25 across multiple exchange-traded funds (ETFs), worth roughly $17.2 million based on the reported purchase value. That follows additional buying earlier in August. The timing is notable. Shares of Cerebras have fallen sharply from their May peak and remain extremely volatile. CBRS stock is down 7% over the past month and 26% over the past three months. The stock has swung between a 52-week high of $386.34 and a low of $160.81. More News from Barchart Why is Wood buying the dip? Let's take a closer look. Cerebras Stock Is Still a High-Growth AI Bet The answer starts with Cerebras' positioning in the fast-growing AI inference market. Unlike Nvidia (NVDA), which dominates the broader GPU market, Cerebras focuses on wafer-scale computing designed to deliver extremely fast AI inference. That could become increasingly important as businesses move from training AI models toward running them in real time. Cerebras has also been expanding beyond selling AI accelerators. It is building an inference cloud business and working with major technology companies including OpenAI, Amazon's (AMZN) Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). The company recently unveiled its CS-4 system, which it says can deliver up to 30 times faster inference than GPU-based alternatives. Cerebras is also working with AMD on a disaggregated inference architecture that can deliver up to five times higher throughput per watt in certain configurations. That gives Wood a larger thesis than simply betting on another chip company. She is effectively betting that AI inference becomes one of the biggest infrastructure markets of the next decade. Cerebras' Valuation Leaves Little Room for Error The biggest risk is valuation. Cerebras currently has a market capitalization of about $42.5 billion and annual sales of roughly $510 million. The price-to-sales (P/S) ratio is 60 times, an enormous premium for a company that is still losing money on a GAAP basis.
Cerebras vs. SpaceX: Which 2026 IPO Is the Better AI Stock to Own for the Next 5 Years?
Cerebras Systems (NASDAQ: CBRS) and Space Exploration Technologies (NASDAQ: SPCX), known as SpaceX, are two prominent companies that went public in 2026. Cerebras started trading on May 14, while SpaceX followed on June 12. Cerebras builds wafer-scale artificial intelligence (AI) systems (computers built around a single large processor) and sells access to its computing power through the cloud. SpaceX operates reusable rockets, the Starlink satellite network, and an AI segment that includes the Grok large language model and AI computing infrastructure. Missed Nvidia in 2009? This Rare Signal Is Flashing Again. In 2009, a "Double Down" signal flashed for a little-known chipmaker called Nvidia. For the first time in years, that same "Total Conviction" signal is flashing for a company 1/100th the size of Nvidia. Continue " Cerebras is much smaller than SpaceX in terms of market capitalization. However, its cloud revenue is growing rapidly at a time when more AI spending is shifting from training models toward inference or running them in production. SpaceX has already generated nearly $2.6 billion in revenue from the AI business in the second quarter of fiscal 2026 (ending June 30). But it also has its profitable Starlink-driven Connectivity business to help fund that expansion. Hence, the key question is whether Cerebras' faster growth potential can outweigh SpaceX's greater financial strength over the next five years. Cerebras could benefit more as AI spending shifts to inference Gartner expects global spending on AI inference to reach $23.3 billion in 2026, overtaking the $19 billion spent on training. Inference is expected to account for 59% of AI-optimized cloud infrastructure spending by 2027. Cerebras is already benefiting from this trend. The company's non-GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) cloud and services revenue jumped 287% year over year to $127.7 million in the second quarter (ending June 30). Total non-GAAP revenue (core revenue) was up 103.3% year over year to $209.9 million, ahead of management's non-GAAP revenue guidance of around $194 million.The company also raised full-year core revenue guidance to $880 million to $890 million, up from the previous outlook of $855 million to $865 million. However, Cerebras is exposed to customer concentration risk. Three customers accounted for about 76% of the company's second-quarter revenue. Additionally, while Cerebras had $25.4 billion in remaining performance obligations (RPO) at the end of the second quarter, only 22% is expected to be recognized as revenue over the two years ending June 2028.
As Cerebras Launches a New, Record-Setting AI Accelerator, Here's How You Should Play CBRS Stock
Cerebras Systems (CBRS) is giving investors another reason to pay attention to its ambitions in the rapidly expanding artificial intelligence (AI) accelerator market. On Aug. 18, the company unveiled its new CS-4 rack-scale platform, which it says can deliver up to 30 times faster AI inference than comparable GPU-based systems. Built around three new WSE-3 Turbo processors, CS-4 delivers 750 petaflops of AI compute, 7.2 terabits per second of I/O bandwidth, and 129.6 petabytes per second of memory bandwidth. The launch comes at a critical time for Cerebras. The company is seeking to establish itself as a credible alternative to Nvidia (NVDA) in AI inference, where demand is rising as businesses deploy increasingly sophisticated generative AI and agentic applications. Cerebras says CS-4 can support models exceeding 50 trillion parameters and reduce wafer-to-wafer latency to as little as two microseconds, potentially giving customers a significant speed advantage for latency-sensitive workloads. More News from Barchart However, the technology opportunity must be weighed against Cerebras' execution challenges. In its second quarter, reported revenue reached $180.1 million. Yet profitability remains a concern, and CBRS shares have shown considerable volatility following the company's recent earnings report. For investors, CS-4 could strengthen the long-term bullish case, but the stock remains a high-risk AI play. About Cerebras Systems Stock Cerebras Systems is a Sunnyvale, California-based artificial intelligence semiconductor company that develops specialized computing systems and processors designed to accelerate AI workloads, particularly inference. Its flagship Wafer-Scale Engine (WSE) technology integrates compute and memory on a single wafer, offering an alternative to conventional GPU-based architectures. The company has a market cap of around $49.1 billion. Cerebras has experienced significant volatility since its Nasdaq debut, as investor excitement over the AI infrastructure opportunity has been tempered by concerns surrounding its valuation and profitability. The company priced its IPO at $185 per share and started trading on May 14, 2026. CBRS opened at $350 and ended its first trading session at $311.07, marking a 68.2% gain over its IPO price and placing it among the year's strongest new listings.
Cerebras Systems (CBRS) Revenue Surges: Why Did CBRS Stock Crash, and What About AMD?
On August 12, 2026, Cerebras Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:CBRS) shares tumbled about 14% in extended trading, even after the AI chipmaker's second-quarter revenue rose 74.3% year over year and it raised its full-year guidance for the second time since going public in May 2026. Why This Matters Cerebras positioned itself as a genuine Nvidia challenger at its May 2026 IPO. This quarter's mixed results, a revenue miss paired with a smaller-than-expected loss, test how investors read a business leaning more on cloud revenue than chip sales. That raises the real question: is Cerebras becoming a cloud-services company that happens to make chips, rather than the chip challenger investors bought into? The Bull Case: Cerebras Total second-quarter revenue rose 74.3% year over year to $180.1 million, though that missed the $194.2 million analysts expected, according to LSEG. The adjusted loss narrowed sharply to 5 cents a share, well inside the 17 cents analysts modeled and below the $40.5 million adjusted loss posted a year earlier. CEO Andrew Feldman said AI demand is "through the roof," as fast-inference pricing lifts margins. Cerebras Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:CBRS) raised its full-year core revenue guidance to $880 million to $890 million, up from $855 million to $865 million, and lifted its annual adjusted gross margin target to 41% to 43% from 38% to 41%. The firm ended the quarter with $25.4 billion in remaining performance obligations. OpenAI can now use Cerebras chips for its latest model. Despite the post-earnings slide, shares closed that day at $262.06, still up 42% from the $185 IPO price. The Bear Case: Cerebras The headline number is still unattractive: Cerebras posted a GAAP net loss of $450.5 million for the quarter, compared with a $309.5 million profit a year earlier. Even though most of that swing came from $386.6 million in stock-based compensation costs rather than the underlying business. Hardware sales, including its core AI chips, actually declined to $54.1 million from $70.3 million a year earlier, which means more of Cerebras Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:CBRS)'s growth now comes from renting back its own systems to cloud customers than from selling chips outright. Gross margin fell to 40.6% from 46.5% in the prior quarter for the same reason. Morgan Stanley analysts said "execution remains the key debate" given the scale and speed of the capacity buildout required. Both Citi and Mizuho trimmed their price targets after the results.
Cerebras Systems (CBRS) Revenue Surges: Why Did CBRS Stock Crash, and What About AMD?
On August 12, 2026, Cerebras Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:CBRS) shares tumbled about 14% in extended trading, even after the AI chipmaker's second-quarter revenue rose 74.3% year over year and it raised its full-year guidance for the second time since going public in May 2026. Why This Matters Cerebras positioned itself as a genuine Nvidia challenger at its May 2026 IPO. This quarter's mixed results, a revenue miss paired with a smaller-than-expected loss, test how investors read a business leaning more on cloud revenue than chip sales. That raises the real question: is Cerebras becoming a cloud-services company that happens to make chips, rather than the chip challenger investors bought into? The Bull Case: Cerebras Total second-quarter revenue rose 74.3% year over year to $180.1 million, though that missed the $194.2 million analysts expected, according to LSEG. The adjusted loss narrowed sharply to 5 cents a share, well inside the 17 cents analysts modeled and below the $40.5 million adjusted loss posted a year earlier. CEO Andrew Feldman said AI demand is "through the roof," as fast-inference pricing lifts margins. Cerebras Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:CBRS) raised its full-year core revenue guidance to $880 million to $890 million, up from $855 million to $865 million, and lifted its annual adjusted gross margin target to 41% to 43% from 38% to 41%. The firm ended the quarter with $25.4 billion in remaining performance obligations. OpenAI can now use Cerebras chips for its latest model. Despite the post-earnings slide, shares closed that day at $262.06, still up 42% from the $185 IPO price. The Bear Case: Cerebras The headline number is still unattractive: Cerebras posted a GAAP net loss of $450.5 million for the quarter, compared with a $309.5 million profit a year earlier. Even though most of that swing came from $386.6 million in stock-based compensation costs rather than the underlying business. Hardware sales, including its core AI chips, actually declined to $54.1 million from $70.3 million a year earlier, which means more of Cerebras Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:CBRS)'s growth now comes from renting back its own systems to cloud customers than from selling chips outright. Gross margin fell to 40.6% from 46.5% in the prior quarter for the same reason. Morgan Stanley analysts said "execution remains the key debate" given the scale and speed of the capacity buildout required. Both Citi and Mizuho trimmed their price targets after the results.
Cisco & Cerebras Orders Up, Stocks Down
In this episode of Motley Fool Hidden Gems Investing, Motley Fool contributors Tyler Crowe, Matt Frankel, and Jon Quast discuss: * Cisco earnings. * Strong hardware, weak software. * Cerebras, making sense of its confusing earnings. * Can innovations like Cerebras threaten the AI incumbents? * Hidden Gems earnings lightning round. To catch full episodes of all The Motley Fool's free podcasts, check out our podcast center. When you're ready to invest, check out this top 10 list of stocks to buy. Missed Nvidia in 2009? This Rare Signal Is Flashing Again. In 2009, a "Double Down" signal flashed for a little-known chipmaker called Nvidia. For the first time in years, that same "Total Conviction" signal is flashing for a company 1/100th the size of Nvidia. Continue " A full transcript is below. Should you buy stock in Cisco Systems right now? Before you buy stock in Cisco Systems, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now... and Cisco Systems wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut are built for long-term growth and could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $429,223!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $1,318,055!* That performance is why people listen. With a track record of beating the S&P 500 by nearly 5x, Stock Advisor offers a distinct advantage. Don't miss the latest top 10 list, available with Stock Advisor, and join an investing community built for the long haul. See the 10 stocks " *Stock Advisor returns as of August 22, 2026. This podcast was recorded on Aug. 13, 2026. Tyler Crowe: The wild ups and downs of earnings season continues. Motley Fool Hidden Gems Investing starts now. Welcome to Motley Fool Hidden Gems Investing. I'm your host, Tyler Crowe, and today I'm joined by longtime Fool contributors, Jon Quast and Matt Frankel. Guys, it has been a wild up and down of the second quarter. Look, we could go into the several reasons, and maybe once the earning season dies down, we'll really do a postmortem of why this seems to be happening more with the AI trade recently and the volatility of the recent stock market. But we're a little busy with earnings right now. We had a couple of big earnings reports. We had Cisco, we had Cerebras, which is a new IPO, a lot of investor excitement around that. Then we really dug into some under-the-radar stocks, doing a little bit of a lightning round, letting us indulge our analyst tendencies a little bit here. But let's start with Cisco. Shares of Cisco are down 7.4% as we record. Considering the moves we've seen so far in the second quarter, that's actually a rather mild reaction for the stock. As with anything that's selling equipment to data centers and AI, sales growth looked great. But it seems as though the fly in the soup was related to service revenue, which came in a little lower than expected. Matt, to start with you. What stood out in the report?
