By Echo Wang, Max A. Cherney, Krystal Hu
NEW YORK (Reuters) -Cerebras Systems is likely to postpone its IPO, after facing delays with a U.S. national security review on UAE-based tech conglomerate G42’s minority investment in the AI chipmaker, people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.
Cerebras, which competes with industry leader Nvidia in the lucrative artificial intelligence chip market, is likely to call off the roadshow that was scheduled for early next week for its highly anticipated initial public offering, the sources said, requesting anonymity as the discussions are confidential.
Cerebras declined to comment. G42 did not respond to requests for comment.
The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), which reviews foreign investments over possible national security concerns, is currently looking into G42’s investment in Cerebras, the company disclosed in a recent regulatory filing.
Cerebras still expects CFIUS to green-light the G42 deal this year, the sources said. The company will look to proceed with a stock market launch as soon as it receives the necessary clearance from CFIUS, the sources said, cautioning that the plans could change depending on the timing of the approval.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Treasury, which is in charge of CFIUS, declined to comment on the Cerebras IPO, saying that the agency is “committed to taking all necessary actions within its authority to safeguard U.S. national security.”
UAE-based technology group G42, which is an investor and the biggest client of Cerebras, has drawn increased scrutiny from China hawks in Washington, amid fears the UAE and other Middle Eastern companies are becoming a conduit for China to receive advanced American AI technology it is blocked from getting directly from the United States.
G42 accounted for $65.1 million, or 83% of the total revenue, for Cerebras during the year ended December 31, 2023, according to the filing.
G42 has committed to buy $335 million worth of Cerebras’ stock by April, a deal that would give it a stake of more than 5% in the company.
REVIEW DELAYS
Cerebras and G42 have submitted a joint filing to notify CFIUS of the investment. The companies later amended the filing, specifying that the shares to be acquired by G42 will be non-voting securities, which they argued should not require a CFIUS review.
In September, the companies submitted a request to CFIUS to withdraw the notice. CFIUS is considering the withdrawal request, according to Cerebras’ IPO filing.
Sunnyvale, California-based Cerebras is in the process of building a series of AI data centers for G42. The technology has been used to train an Arabic large language model, which is now being served on the Microsoft Azure AI platform.
The processors developed by Cerebras compete directly with the chips made by Nvidia for building large artificial intelligence models and running AI applications. The chip startup is one of the few in Silicon Valley that is adopting a different technical strategy than Nvidia to tackle the same computing challenge faced by customers.
Cerebras CEO Andrew Feldman has previously claimed that the large chip produced by Cerebras carries several technical advantages for AI applications, compared to chips produced by Nvidia and other competitors.
Cerebras tapped Citigroup and Barclays as the lead underwriters for the planned offering.
(Reporting by Echo Wang in New York, Max Cherney and Krystal Hu in San Francisco; additional reporting by Alexandra Alper; Editing by Anirban Sen and Nick Zieminski)
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