Toronto , Canada – 20 June 2024; Andrew Feldman, co-founder and CEO of Cerebras Systems, speaks at the Collision conference in Toronto on June 20, 2024.
Ramsey Cardy | Sportsfile | Collision | Getty Images
Artificial intelligence chip developer Cerebras said Monday that it has obtained clearance from a U.S. committee to sell shares to Group 42, a Microsoft-backed AI company based in the United Arab Emirates.
That clearance came from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, or CFIUS, and it’s a key step for Cerebras in its effort to go public. Cerebras competes with Nvidia, whose graphics processing units are the industry’s choice for training and running AI models, but most of its revenue comes from a customer called Group 42.
Cerebras filed to go public in September but has not provided details on timing or size for the initial public offering. The regulatory overhang was tied to the company’s relationship with Group 42, which was the source of 87% of Cerebras’ revenue in the first half of 2024, made the IPO look uncertain.
“We thank @POTUS for making America the best place in the world to invest in cutting-edge #AI technology,” Andrew Feldman, Cerebras’ co-founder and CEO, wrote in a Monday LinkedIn post. “We thank G42’s leadership and the UAE’s leadership for their ongoing partnership and commitment to supporting U.S headquartered AI companies.”
Lawmakers have previously worried about Group 42’s connections to China. Last year Mike Gallagher, then a Republican member of Congress from Wisconsin, said in a statement that he was “glad to see G42 reduce its investment exposure to Chinese companies.” Microsoft later announced a $1.5 billion investment in Group 42.
Both Cerebras and Group 42 had given voluntary notice to CFIUS about the sale of voting shares, according to the Sunnyvale, California-based company’s IPO prospectus. Group 42 had agreed to buy $335 million worth of Cerebras shares by April 15, according to the prospectus. The two companies later changed the agreement to say Group 42 would be buying non-voting shares, prompting them to withdraw their notice, because they said they did not believe CFIUS had jurisdiction over sales of non-voting securities.
CFIUS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Just a handful of technology companies have gone public since 2021, as higher interest rates made unprofitable companies less desirable. But in recent months, Cerebras and a few technology-related companies have taken steps toward IPOs, and last week, AI infrastructure provider CoreWeave went public.
CoreWeave shares fell 7% on Monday, its second day of trading.
WATCH: Cerebras Systems likely to postpone IPO after facing delays with CFIUS Review, reports say
