31–40 of 138 posts
This is the first I've heard of Cerebras Systems. From the article >Cerebras had a net loss of $66.6 million in the first six months of 2024 on $136.4 million in sales, according to the filing. That doesn't sound very good. What makes them think they can compete with Nvidia, and why IPO right now? Are they trying to get government money to make chip fabs like Intel or something?
This is the first I've heard of Cerebras Systems. From the article >Cerebras had a net loss of $66.6 million in the first six months of 2024 on $136.4 million in sales, according to the filing. That doesn't sound very good. What makes them think they can compete with Nvidia, and why IPO right now? Are they trying to get government money to make chip fabs like Intel or something?
You seemed surprised that this company is having an IPO to actually raise funds for operations and expansion, vs as just an "exit" where VCs and other insiders can dump their shares onto the broader public. I might be a bit suspicious if a company in some low-capital-intensive industry was IPOing while unprofitable, but this is chip making. Even if they're not making their own fabs this is still an industry with high…
NVIDIA is pretty established but there's also Intel, AMD, Google to contend with. Sure Cerebras is unique in that they make one large chip out of the entire wafer but nothing prevents these other companies from doing the same thing. Currently they are choosing not to because of wafer economics but if they chose to, Cerebras would pretty much lose their advantage. https://www.servethehome.com/cerebras-wse-3-ai-chip-la…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
You seemed surprised that this company is having an IPO to actually raise funds for operations and expansion, vs as just an "exit" where VCs and other insiders can dump their shares onto the broader public. I might be a bit suspicious if a company in some low-capital-intensive industry was IPOing while unprofitable, but this is chip making. Even if they're not making their own fabs this is still an industry with high…
they don't make chips. they design and contract TSMC to fab the chips. The high capital is in design tools and engineers.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company makes the Cerebras chips. Cerebrus warned investors that any possible supply chain disruptions may hurt the company. They get their chips from the same company that Nvidia does.
They both contract TSMC to fabricate their chips. The actual design and R&D is still done by Nvidia, Cerebras, AMD, Groq, etc. Think of TSMC like Kinko's - they do printing and fabrication which is very low margins. The main PMF for Cerebras is in simulations, drug discovery, and ofc ML. As I've mentioned before on HN, Public-Private Drug Discovery and NatLab research has been a major driver for HPC over the past 20…
Cerebras is well-known in the AI chip market. They make chips that are an entire wafer. https://spectrum.ieee.org/cerebras-chip-cs3
NVIDIA is pretty established but there's also Intel, AMD, Google to contend with. Sure Cerebras is unique in that they make one large chip out of the entire wafer but nothing prevents these other companies from doing the same thing. Currently they are choosing not to because of wafer economics but if they chose to, Cerebras would pretty much lose their advantage. https://www.servethehome.com/cerebras-wse-3-ai-chip-la…
I don’t think their value add is simple “single wafer” with all other variables the same. In fact I think the block and system that gets the most out of that form factor is the secret sauce and not as easily replicated - especially since the innovations are almost certainly protected by an enormous moat of patents and guarded by a legion of lawyers.
This is the first I've heard of Cerebras Systems. From the article >Cerebras had a net loss of $66.6 million in the first six months of 2024 on $136.4 million in sales, according to the filing. That doesn't sound very good. What makes them think they can compete with Nvidia, and why IPO right now? Are they trying to get government money to make chip fabs like Intel or something?
You seemed surprised that this company is having an IPO to actually raise funds for operations and expansion, vs as just an "exit" where VCs and other insiders can dump their shares onto the broader public. I might be a bit suspicious if a company in some low-capital-intensive industry was IPOing while unprofitable, but this is chip making. Even if they're not making their own fabs this is still an industry with high…
NVIDIA is pretty established but there's also Intel, AMD, Google to contend with. Sure Cerebras is unique in that they make one large chip out of the entire wafer but nothing prevents these other companies from doing the same thing. Currently they are choosing not to because of wafer economics but if they chose to, Cerebras would pretty much lose their advantage. https://www.servethehome.com/cerebras-wse-3-ai-chip-la…
get extorted by nvidia sales people for a 2026 delivery date that gets pushed out if you say anything about it or decline cloud services
or another provider delivering earlier
thats what the market wants, and even then, who cares? this company is trying to IPO at whay valuation? this article didnt say but the last valuation was like $1.5bn? so you mean a 300x of delta between this and Nvidia’s valuation if these guys get a handful of orders? ok