Key Highlights

  • Second quarter revenue rose 74% to $180.1 million, while the GAAP net loss was $450.5 million, or $2.98 per share.
  • Remaining performance obligations reached $25.4 billion at June 30, with a significant portion tied to the OpenAI agreement.
  • Non-GAAP core revenue guidance for 2026 was raised to $880 million to $890 million from $855 million to $865 million.
  • Two customers accounted for 34% and 32% of second quarter revenue, and the quarterly report discloses a copyright class action.

Cerebras Systems (NASDAQ:CBRS) shares were trading near their 52-week low at USD 122.58 on October 19, 2026, down 3.64%. The AI infrastructure company reported second quarter 2026 results on August 12, with revenue up sharply and a much larger GAAP operating loss. Five reputed brokers have updated their views since then.

Brokerage context

Morgan Stanley raised its target to $279 from $273 on August 13 and kept Overweight, citing a core revenue and margin beat and higher 2026 guidance. Citi kept Buy that day but cut its target to $320 from $340, while UBS kept Buy and lifted its target to $330 from $320. Mizuho maintained Outperform with a $300 target, down from $310. Jefferies upgraded the shares to Outperform on October 5, with no target listed. The price of USD 122.58 is below all four named targets.

Second quarter results show faster cloud growth and a wider loss

Cerebras reported revenue of $180.1 million for the quarter ended June 30, 2026, up 74% from $103.3 million. Cloud and other services revenue grew 281% to $126.0 million, while hardware revenue fell to $54.1 million from $70.3 million. GAAP gross margin was 14.2%, against 31.1%.

The GAAP operating loss was $477.2 million, including $377.0 million of stock-based compensation, against $57.2 million a year earlier. The net loss was $450.5 million, or $2.98 per basic and diluted share, versus net income of $309.5 million in a quarter that included $368.4 million of other income.

On a non-GAAP basis, which the company calls core and which excludes items such as stock-based compensation, core revenue was $209.9 million and the core operating loss was $33.6 million.

OpenAI contract, backlog, customers and liquidity

Remaining performance obligations were $25.4 billion at June 30. A significant portion relates to a December 2025 agreement with OpenAI for 750 megawatts of committed inference capacity. About 22% is expected to be recognized over the 24 months ending June 30, 2028.

Revenue is concentrated among a few customers. Two of them, not named in the filing, accounted for 34% and 32% of second quarter revenue, and a third for 10%. OpenAI funded a secured working capital loan of about $1.0 billion in January, with a 6% stated rate and maturity no later than December 31, 2032, and $918.2 million was outstanding at June 30. OpenAI also holds a warrant for up to 33,445,026 Class N shares and exercised 10,033,508 of them in July.

At June 30, Cerebras held $6.74 billion of cash and cash equivalents, $684.7 million of restricted cash and $1.18 billion of investments, following its May 15 initial public offering, which raised about $6.2 billion net. An $850 million revolving credit facility had no borrowings and carries a $150 million minimum liquidity covenant. For the six months, operations used $47.5 million of cash. A putative class action filed in October 2025 alleges copyright infringement tied to certain large language models and datasets. The company denies the claims and cannot estimate a possible loss.

Guidance and milestones the company has set

On August 12, Cerebras raised its full-year 2026 non-GAAP core guidance to revenue of $880 million to $890 million, core gross margin of 41% to 43% and a core operating margin of negative 19% to negative 17%. Its June 23 guidance was revenue of $855 million to $865 million. For the third quarter, it expects core revenue of about $214 million to $216 million. Management also said it plans to more than triple revenue in 2027. These are the company's own estimates.

Planned milestones include more than 600 megawatts of data center capacity live or under contract for delivery by the end of 2027, a more than tenfold rise in manufacturing capacity during 2026 and AMD disaggregated inference in production in the fourth quarter of 2026.