By Bram Berkowitz, The Motley Fool
Publication Date: 2026-05-22 15:34:00
Artificial intelligence (AI) chipmaker Cerebras Systems (NASDAQ: CBRS) went public on May 14 amid much buzz. The stock popped by 68% on its first day of trading — a sign, according to experts, that the AI trade is alive and well.
The hype around this initial public offering makes sense, given that Cerebras is competing with major chip designers like Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) and AMD, both of which have performed extraordinarily well in recent years.
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Investors were likely even more excited to read in Cerebras’ registration statement that the company says its chips are 15 times faster than those of leading competitors.
While that’s undoubtedly intriguing, Nvidia’s graphics processing units (GPUs) still have two distinct advantages over Cerebras’ chips.
Why Cerebras’ chips are different
While most chip designers start the process of making their chips by cutting large silicon wafers into many small pieces that will eventually become individual chips, Cerebras uses an entire silicon wafer to make one massive chip: Its wafer-scale engines (WSEs) are 58 times larger than Nvidia’s Blackwell 200 processors.Some news outlets have described Cerebras’ chips as being the size of a dinner plate.
Larger chips…
