web3: Cerebras falls 14% after hours despite raising full-year guidance

After Cerebras released its second earnings report as a public company, the company raised its full-year revenue guidance, but the market reacted coolly, with the share price falling about 14% in after-hours trading. The AI chip company said that enterprise demand for its inference chips continues to grow rapidly.

The company disclosed that core revenue in the second quarter was $210 million; under GAAP, revenue was $180.1 million, with the difference mainly related to what the company called “pass-through revenue.” Since the calculation methods are not entirely consistent, this quarter’s data isn’t fully comparable to analysts’ expectations.

Quarterly Results and Current Guidance

Cerebras expects core revenue for this quarter to be between $214 million and $216 million. Analyst expectations compiled by LSEG stand at $212.6 million, but the report notes that it is unclear whether market expectations refer to core revenue.

The company also raised its full-year core revenue guidance from a previous $855 million to $865 million up to $880 million to $890 million. This indicates management is more optimistic about realizing orders in the second half of the year.

• Second quarter core revenue: $210 million
• Third quarter core revenue guidance: $214 million to $216 million
• Full-year core revenue guidance: $880 million to $890 million

Inference Chip Demand Remains Strong

CEO Andrew Feldman stated that AI demand is “very strong,” and customers are willing to pay higher prices for the company’s chips designed for inference applications. Cerebras currently focuses on low-latency inference capabilities, targeting interactive AI tasks that require rapid responses.

The company said that this quarter’s core gross margin is expected to expand to 38% to 40%, in response to investor concerns about profitability. Feldman said that rapid inference products offer premium pricing potential, and improvements in system throughput also help boost gross margin performance.

Rising Competition with Nvidia

Cerebras is challenging Nvidia in certain AI tasks, especially in the low-latency inference sector. The company went public on NASDAQ in May with an issue price of $185 per share, raising about $6.4 billion. Although the share price has pulled back from its peak in May, it still closed at $262.06 on Wednesday, about 42% above the issue price.

The company also disclosed that remaining performance obligations have reached $25.4 billion, which is seen as a signal of strong future demand. Management anticipates that as shipment volumes increase, manufacturing efficiency, component procurement prices, and capacity utilization will all improve, and they expect revenue in the next fiscal year to reach three times the current level.

Recently, Cerebras also announced a partnership with AMD, with related products scheduled for production later this year. The company also stated that OpenAI can use its chips to power the latest model GPT 5.6-Sol. In addition to hardware sales, Cerebras also provides chip access via cloud services, with this business generating $126 million in revenue for the June quarter.

Additional Information: This is Cerebras’s second earnings report since its IPO in May. The market chose to sell following the guidance upgrade, indicating that investors remain cautious about valuation, profitability, and the pace of future results.