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The market for initial public offerings (IPOs) got off to a slow start in 2026 amid private credit concerns, a broader risk-off backdrop and volatility sparked by the war in Iran.
Only 35 companies went public in the first three months of the year — the fewest in a quarter since Q1 2024. But while the actual number of IPOs was light, the amount raised was boosted by several sizable offerings, says Renaissance Capital. They include electrical equipment maker Forgent Power Solutions (FPS), which brought in more than $1 billion in its offering.
The second quarter has gotten off to a strong start, thanks in part to Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square IPO, where the billionaire investor took his hedge fund and closed-end fund public in a rare dual offering.
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Through May 11, there have been 89 IPOs filed so far in 2026, up 7.2% year over year. And the 55 offerings priced have raised $18.3 billion (+76.1% YoY).
The next hot upcoming IPO is right on our doorstep. Cerebras, which builds high-powered chips for complex artificial intelligence (AI) applications, is set to begin trading later this week.
When is the Cerebras IPO?
Cerebras bills itself as “the fastest AI infrastructure” firm. “For many workloads, Cerebras is up to 15 times faster than leading GPU-based solutions as benchmarked on leading open-source models,” the company explains in its S-1 filing. “In some more exotic workloads, we have been more than 1,000 times faster.”
In 2025, Cerebras had $510 million in total revenue, up 76% from 2024, and $237.8 million in net income vs a net loss of $481.6 million from the year prior.
So far in 2026, Cerebras has already inked multi-year deals with artificial intelligence giants OpenAI and Amazon Web Services. Its backers also include OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Greg Brockman and Ilya Sutskever.
As for its IPO, the company is expected to officially price its offering the evening of Wednesday, May 13, and begin trading on the Nasdaq on Thursday, May 14, under the ticker symbol “CBRS.”
Cerebras price range increases ahead of IPO
According to a Monday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Cerebras raised the per-share pricing for its offering to a range of $150 to $160, up from the estimate of $115 to $125 that it gave last week.
Based on the 30 million shares of common CBRS stock it’s offering, the AI company could raise up to $4.8 billion, which will make it one of the biggest IPOs of the year so far. This will also give Cerebras a market valuation of nearly $49 billion.
Should you buy the Cerebras IPO?
“An initial public offering enables a private company to ‘go public,’ or start trading in public markets, by issuing its own shares on a stock exchange for the first time. In this way, any investor can buy shares and the company can raise capital to grow,” Taulli writes in his article, “What Is an Initial Public Offering (IPO)?“.
But buyer beware: IPOs can be volatile – especially for retail investors. While new stocks will often have strong first-day showings, returns for the first year are generally weak, says the team of analysts at Trivariate Research, a market research firm based in New York.
“In this froth and frenzy, opportunities mix with peril,” writes David Milstead, senior associate editor at the Kiplinger Personal Finance magazine. “The safest course may be to wait for companies to settle in some months after their debut, after one or two quarterly earnings reports.”
As for retail investors, whether or not you buy the Cerebras IPO comes down to your own risk tolerance and personal investing goals. If you do decide to buy shares of CBRS stock when they first begin trading, do so in a small amount that you can afford to lose and have a trading plan in place.
