TLDR
- Cerebras core Q2 revenue doubled to $209.9 million as cloud demand surged sharply.
- CBRS stock fell 13.93% after hours despite a strong 11.63% regular-session gain.
- Core cloud revenue jumped 287% year over year to a record $127.7 million in Q2.
- Cerebras raised 2026 core revenue guidance to between $880 million and $890 million.
- Remaining performance obligations reached $25.4 billion at the end of June.
Cerebras Systems (CBRS) shares posted sharp second-quarter growth as cloud demand lifted revenue and strengthened its 2026 outlook. However, CBRS stock plunged 13.93% after hours to $225.55 after closing the session at $262.06. The reversal followed an 11.63% regular-session gain and came despite stronger core revenue and raised annual guidance.
Cerebras Q2 Revenue Doubles as Cloud Business Expands
Cerebras reported second-quarter GAAP revenue of $180.1 million, representing a 74% increase from the previous year. Meanwhile, core revenue reached $209.9 million and increased 103% from the same period last year. Cloud and other services provided the strongest growth as demand for fast AI inference continued expanding.
GAAP cloud and services revenue reached a record $126 million, representing growth of 281% year over year. Core cloud and services revenue increased 287% to $127.7 million during the quarter. Therefore, cloud operations accounted for a significant share of Cerebras’ quarterly growth and supported its broader infrastructure expansion.
Core gross margin improved to 41%, rising about 940 basis points compared with the second quarter of 2025. Additionally, core operating margin improved by roughly 2,600 basis points but remained negative at 16%. GAAP gross margin stood at 14%, while the company’s GAAP operating margin remained deeply negative at 265%.
Cerebras Expands AI Capacity and Strengthens Major Partnerships
Cerebras ended June with $25.4 billion in remaining performance obligations, providing substantial contracted business for future periods. The company also reported $8.6 billion in cash, restricted cash, equivalents, and short-term investments. Furthermore, Cerebras secured an $850 million revolving credit facility to support additional data center capacity.
The company increased contracted data center capacity to more than 600 megawatts for delivery through the end of 2027. Its wider pipeline now includes several gigawatts of potential data center opportunities. Cerebras also expects manufacturing capacity to increase more than tenfold during 2026 through additional contract manufacturing lines.
Cerebras expanded manufacturing partnerships with Flex, Sanmina, and Rocket EMS while securing wafer supply from TSMC. Its wafer-scale architecture also reduces reliance on HBM memory, CoWoS packaging, and three-nanometer fabrication technology. Consequently, the company expects fewer supply constraints as infrastructure deployments accelerate during 2027 and beyond.
Cerebras Raises 2026 Outlook as Cloud Demand Builds
Cerebras strengthened its technology relationships with OpenAI, AMD, AWS, CrowdStrike, and several emerging AI software companies. Its infrastructure now supports OpenAI GPT-5.6 Sol at speeds reaching 750 tokens per second. Additionally, Cerebras and AMD developed disaggregated inference systems designed to increase throughput by as much as five times.
The AMD-supported inference offering remains scheduled for production during the fourth quarter of 2026. Cerebras also expects similar throughput improvements through Amazon Bedrock during the first quarter of 2027. Meanwhile, Cognition and Lovable signed new cloud capacity agreements as Cerebras expanded its customer base.
For the third quarter, Cerebras expects core revenue between $214 million and $216 million. Management also forecasts core gross margins between 38% and 40%, with operating margins remaining negative. For 2026, Cerebras raised core revenue guidance to $880 million through $890 million alongside stronger margin expectations.
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