Cerebras (CBRS) Stock Plunges 17% After Beating Earnings. Here’s Why

TLDR

• Cerebras reported Q2 core revenue of $210 million, beating the $191 million estimate and doubling year-over-year.
• The stock fell 17% in after-hours trading after gaining 12% during regular hours.
• Adjusted operating loss came in at $34 million, well ahead of Wall Street’s $63 million loss estimate.
• The company raised its 2026 core revenue forecast to $890 million and lifted gross margin outlook to 41%-43%.
• Cerebras’ backlog held steady at around $25 billion, with a major multi-year OpenAI cloud contract at its core.

Cerebras Systems reported stronger-than-expected Q2 results on Wednesday, but the market wasn’t buying it. The stock dropped about 17% in after-hours trading to around $219, after rising 12% during regular hours.

Cerebras Systems Inc., CBRS

Core revenue for the quarter hit $210 million, above the $191 million Wall Street expected, and double what the company posted a year ago.

The company uses a non-standard revenue metric. It subtracts pass-through revenue that carries no margin, and adds back warrant amortization costs. In Q2, reported sales were $180.1 million, which became $210 million under the core revenue calculation.

CEREBRAS SYSTEMS $CBRS JUST REPORTED Q2 EARNINGS

– EPS loss of $2.98 versus EPS of $1.91 in the same period last year 🔴
– Revenue of $180.1M missing expectations of $194M 🔴
– Cloud revenue of $126.0M beating expectations of $116.3M 🟢
– Hardware revenue of $54.1M missing… pic.twitter.com/PkncSxF2W5

— WOLF (@WOLF_Financial) August 12, 2026

The full-year adjusted operating margin is now projected at around -18%, up from the -30% forecast given in June.

That marks a real improvement. When the company reported Q1 results in June, its adjusted operating margin outlook was -30%. The latest guidance of around -18% shows the business is closing the gap faster than expected.

Q3 guidance also beat expectations. Analysts already expect Cerebras to reach adjusted operating profitability in 2027, and the pace of improvement suggests that could happen on schedule or earlier.

Net income was a bigger concern. Cerebras swung to a $450.5 million net loss in Q2, compared to net income of $309.5 million in the same quarter a year ago.

The company’s backlog stayed flat at around $25 billion. For a fast-growing company, investors tend to want to see that number moving up.

OpenAI Deal Anchors the Backlog

The bulk of that backlog comes from a multi-year contract with OpenAI to rent Cerebras servers through the cloud. OpenAI also holds an option to expand the deal and is receiving stock warrants as part of the arrangement.

Cerebras has also added newer deals with Amazon and AMD. These contracts are structured so that Cerebras’ WSE chip works alongside Amazon and AMD chips on high-speed inference tasks. Amazon is also receiving stock warrants.

Stock Has Been Volatile Since IPO

Cerebras went public in May at $185 per share. It opened at $350 on its first day and hit a high of $386, before sliding to a low of $161 by the end of June.

Since then the stock has bounced between $162 and $266. It has moved more than 3% in either direction on 43 of the 62 days it has traded publicly.

The company’s current market cap sits at around $59.37 billion.

Cerebras raised its full-year core revenue forecast from $880 million to $890 million, and lifted its gross margin outlook to a range of 41% to 43%.

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