Cerebras Systems is preparing to refile its S-1 in 2Q26, with a potential IPO launch as soon as April, according to four sources familiar with the situation.

The Sunnyvale, California-based artificial intelligence chipmaker had confidentially filed in September 2024 but withdrew its registration statement in October after completing additional private fundraising and refreshing its disclosures.

It has since resumed preparations for a US listing, the sources said. The updated filing is expected in the second quarter, with launch timing dependent on market conditions; April is viewed as feasible internally, three of the sources said, though one conceded execution could extend into June.

Testing-the-waters meetings are already under way, two of the sources said, with one saying that banks are focused on valuation certainty going into the transaction.

The business is performing well, said one source, noting that the company now has “lots of optionality.”

Cerebras is approaching the market after a period of operational growth, according to one of the sources who expects 2025 to represent the company’s largest revenue year to date, in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

For 2026, net revenue could scale closer to USD 1bn, according to estimates seen by the source.

The commercial expansion includes a recently announced compute partnership with OpenAI, which two of the sources cited as strategically significant and supportive of the company’s 2026 scaling trajectory.

The company’s revenue profile has also been supported by advance billing dynamics on certain contracts, which have historically affected working capital, one source said.

Cerebras has been diversifying its customer base, two of the sources said.

The company had previously faced investor scrutiny over revenue concentration among a small number of customers. Recent traction has broadened its commercial footprint, they said.

The planned IPO would follow a Series H financing completed earlier this year at a USD 23bn valuation, a sharp increase from the company’s prior private round.

The market is now assessing how the public market will benchmark the company relative to listed AI infrastructure and semiconductor peers, two of the sources said.

Cerebras is positioning itself as a differentiated inference infrastructure player rather than a traditional GPU competitor, the two sources said.

Execution, however, will depend heavily on broader AI equity sentiment. “If we’re in a risk-on tape and AI is hot, Cerebras will go very well,” one source said.

Given the USD 23bn private mark, two sources expect the company to pursue premium positioning, though final pricing will reflect demand conditions at launch.

Market timing will also be influenced by technical factors. The IPO market is entering a period of staleness in mid-February, which is expected to slow activity until early to mid-March, one source said.

While preparations are ongoing, a formal launch will likely wait until the window reopens, with banks continuing investor education efforts in the interim, said one source.

Cerebras declined to comment.