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Cerebras Systems Q1 Earnings Beat Estimates, Revenues Increase Y/Y
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Key Takeaways
CBRS posted a narrower Q1 loss as revenues rose 94% on strong AI infrastructure demand.
Cerebras' cloud and other services revenues jumped 178%, with hardware revenues up 59%.
CBRS signed a $20B-plus OpenAI deal and began an AWS partnership to broaden inference reach.
Cerebras Systems (CBRS - Free Report) reported a first-quarter 2026 loss of 4 cents per share, narrower than the Zacks Consensus Estimate of a loss of 14 cents and reflecting a 71.43% earnings surprise. GAAP net loss per share narrowed year over year to 22 cents from 46 cents.
Revenues were $193.4 million, up 94% year over year and 13% sequentially, and topped the consensus estimate by 7.04%. Strength was driven by demand for AI infrastructure, with cloud and other services revenues up 178% and a new OpenAI agreement for 750 megawatts of high-speed inference compute. Core revenues, a non-GAAP measure that excludes customer warrant amortization and data center pass-through items, were $191.3 million, up 92% from the year-ago quarter.
The quarter benefited from strength across hardware and cloud-based offerings. Hardware revenues were $110.6 million, rising 59% year over year, while cloud and other services revenues were $82.8 million, reflecting the rapid adoption of Cerebras’ AI infrastructure platform.
Cerebras Gains From Strategic AI Deals
The company announced a multi-year deal with OpenAI valued at more than $20 billion. Under the agreement, OpenAI will deploy 750 megawatts of Cerebras’ high-speed inference compute over the next several years.
Cerebras Systems Inc. Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise
Cerebras also co-launched Codex-Spark, a model built for near-instant coding workflows where latency matters. The model delivers more than 1,000 tokens per second, underscoring the company’s focus on faster inference for interactive AI applications.
CBRS Expands Cloud Reach With AWS
Cerebras began a multi-year partnership with Amazon’s (AMZN - Free Report) cloud computing platform Amazon Web Services (AWS) to bring fast inference to a broader base of startups, AI-native companies and enterprises. The partnership expands the company’s distribution reach at a time when demand for low-latency AI infrastructure continues to scale.
The companies plan to launch a disaggregated inference strategy. Amazon Web Services Trainium 3 chips will perform the prefill stage, while the Cerebras CS-3 will handle high-speed inference for decoding, combining the strengths of both platforms.
Cerebras’ Product Trials Add Momentum
The company launched enterprise customer trials of Kimi K2.6 and Gemma 4 during the quarter. Kimi K2.6 is an open-weight frontier model, and the first trillion-parameter model served on Cerebras.
Kimi K2.6 achieved performance approaching 1,000 tokens per second, as independently measured by Artificial Analysis. Gemma 4 31B, part of Google DeepMind’s open-weight Gemma family, runs an order of magnitude faster on Cerebras based on scores on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index.
CBRS’s Q1 Operating Details
In the first quarter of 2026, GAAP gross margin was 45%. Hardware gross margin was 41%, while cloud and other services gross margin came in at 49%.
Core gross margin was 47%. Core hardware gross margin was 42%, while core cloud and other services gross margin was 53%, showing a stronger profitability profile for the company’s non-GAAP cloud and services operations.
Operating expenses totaled $101.2 million. Research and development expenses were $75.5 million, sales and marketing expenses were $14.7 million, and general and administrative expenses were $11 million, reflecting continued investment in product innovation and market expansion.
GAAP loss from operations was $15 million compared with $28.5 million in the year-ago quarter. Core operating loss narrowed to $3.5 million from $19.3 million a year earlier.
In the first quarter of 2026, adjusted EBITDA turned positive at $12.7 million against a loss of $15.4 million in the prior year.
CBRS’s Balance Sheet
The balance sheet strengthened meaningfully. As of March 31, 2026, cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash, and short-term investments were $3.3 billion.
Net cash provided by operating activities was $12.3 million compared with net cash used in operating activities of $54.9 million.
CBRS’s Outlook Signals Continued Expansion
For the second quarter of 2026, Cerebras expects core revenues of approximately $194 million, implying 88% year-over-year growth. Core gross margin is expected to be in the range of 36-38%.
For 2026, management expects core revenues of $855-$865 million, up 69% year over year at the midpoint. Core gross margin is projected to be in the range of 38-41%, while core operating margin is expected to be between negative 28% and negative 32%.
CBRS’s Zacks Rank & Stocks to Consider
Cerebras Systems currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for DAVE’s second-quarter 2026 earnings has increased 1% to $3.72 per share over the past 30 days. The consensus estimate for DAVE’s earnings per share (EPS) for the second quarter implies a year-over-year increase of 18.47%.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Innventure’s second-quarter 2026 earnings is pegged at a loss of 26 cents per share, which has been unchanged over the past 30 days. The consensus estimate for Innventure’s EPS for the second quarter implies a year-over-year increase of 83.75%.
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Cerebras Systems Q1 Earnings Beat Estimates, Revenues Increase Y/Y
Key Takeaways
Cerebras Systems (CBRS - Free Report) reported a first-quarter 2026 loss of 4 cents per share, narrower than the Zacks Consensus Estimate of a loss of 14 cents and reflecting a 71.43% earnings surprise. GAAP net loss per share narrowed year over year to 22 cents from 46 cents.
Revenues were $193.4 million, up 94% year over year and 13% sequentially, and topped the consensus estimate by 7.04%. Strength was driven by demand for AI infrastructure, with cloud and other services revenues up 178% and a new OpenAI agreement for 750 megawatts of high-speed inference compute. Core revenues, a non-GAAP measure that excludes customer warrant amortization and data center pass-through items, were $191.3 million, up 92% from the year-ago quarter.
The quarter benefited from strength across hardware and cloud-based offerings. Hardware revenues were $110.6 million, rising 59% year over year, while cloud and other services revenues were $82.8 million, reflecting the rapid adoption of Cerebras’ AI infrastructure platform.
Cerebras Gains From Strategic AI Deals
The company announced a multi-year deal with OpenAI valued at more than $20 billion. Under the agreement, OpenAI will deploy 750 megawatts of Cerebras’ high-speed inference compute over the next several years.
Cerebras Systems Inc. Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise
Cerebras Systems Inc. price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Cerebras Systems Inc. Quote
Cerebras also co-launched Codex-Spark, a model built for near-instant coding workflows where latency matters. The model delivers more than 1,000 tokens per second, underscoring the company’s focus on faster inference for interactive AI applications.
CBRS Expands Cloud Reach With AWS
Cerebras began a multi-year partnership with Amazon’s (AMZN - Free Report) cloud computing platform Amazon Web Services (AWS) to bring fast inference to a broader base of startups, AI-native companies and enterprises. The partnership expands the company’s distribution reach at a time when demand for low-latency AI infrastructure continues to scale.
The companies plan to launch a disaggregated inference strategy. Amazon Web Services Trainium 3 chips will perform the prefill stage, while the Cerebras CS-3 will handle high-speed inference for decoding, combining the strengths of both platforms.
Cerebras’ Product Trials Add Momentum
The company launched enterprise customer trials of Kimi K2.6 and Gemma 4 during the quarter. Kimi K2.6 is an open-weight frontier model, and the first trillion-parameter model served on Cerebras.
Kimi K2.6 achieved performance approaching 1,000 tokens per second, as independently measured by Artificial Analysis. Gemma 4 31B, part of Google DeepMind’s open-weight Gemma family, runs an order of magnitude faster on Cerebras based on scores on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index.
CBRS’s Q1 Operating Details
In the first quarter of 2026, GAAP gross margin was 45%. Hardware gross margin was 41%, while cloud and other services gross margin came in at 49%.
Core gross margin was 47%. Core hardware gross margin was 42%, while core cloud and other services gross margin was 53%, showing a stronger profitability profile for the company’s non-GAAP cloud and services operations.
Operating expenses totaled $101.2 million. Research and development expenses were $75.5 million, sales and marketing expenses were $14.7 million, and general and administrative expenses were $11 million, reflecting continued investment in product innovation and market expansion.
GAAP loss from operations was $15 million compared with $28.5 million in the year-ago quarter. Core operating loss narrowed to $3.5 million from $19.3 million a year earlier.
In the first quarter of 2026, adjusted EBITDA turned positive at $12.7 million against a loss of $15.4 million in the prior year.
CBRS’s Balance Sheet
The balance sheet strengthened meaningfully. As of March 31, 2026, cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash, and short-term investments were $3.3 billion.
Net cash provided by operating activities was $12.3 million compared with net cash used in operating activities of $54.9 million.
CBRS’s Outlook Signals Continued Expansion
For the second quarter of 2026, Cerebras expects core revenues of approximately $194 million, implying 88% year-over-year growth. Core gross margin is expected to be in the range of 36-38%.
For 2026, management expects core revenues of $855-$865 million, up 69% year over year at the midpoint. Core gross margin is projected to be in the range of 38-41%, while core operating margin is expected to be between negative 28% and negative 32%.
CBRS’s Zacks Rank & Stocks to Consider
Cerebras Systems currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Some better-ranked stocks in the broader Zacks Business Services sector are DAVE (DAVE - Free Report) and Innventure (INV - Free Report) . While DAVE sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), Innventure presently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for DAVE’s second-quarter 2026 earnings has increased 1% to $3.72 per share over the past 30 days. The consensus estimate for DAVE’s earnings per share (EPS) for the second quarter implies a year-over-year increase of 18.47%.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Innventure’s second-quarter 2026 earnings is pegged at a loss of 26 cents per share, which has been unchanged over the past 30 days. The consensus estimate for Innventure’s EPS for the second quarter implies a year-over-year increase of 83.75%.