Insiders Sold $277 Million of Cerebras Stock Before the Main Lockup Opens

A sale notice filed into a hot tape

Cerebras closed at $206.63 on 25 September, about 11.7% above its $185 IPO price ¹. The same day, co-founder and chief technology officer Sean Lie filed notice of a proposed sale: another 120,000 shares, roughly $24.8 million, tied to an option exercise, under a trading plan adopted 20 May↗ ².

New money, negative margin

The buy side is arriving. State Street disclosed a new stake of 476,663 shares, about $105.3 million and 0.20% of the company↗ ³, and six straight gains through 22 September lifted the stock 17% to about $212↗, a market value near $32 billion ⁴. What that bid is underwriting: a trailing operating margin of minus 100.3% ⁴.

The plan came six days after the bell

Cerebras began trading 14 May↗ ⁵; Lie's stake was worth about $1 billion at the $185 price ⁵. Six days in, he adopted the 10b5-1 plan that has now sold $167 million↗ ². The largest tranche, 710,247 shares, went on 20 August for $147.6 million, with $46.6 million more from Grounded Love Fund, a vehicle aggregated with his account ².

Feldman sold under a plan adopted the same 20 May, exercising options struck at $2.72↗; Lie's were struck at $5.48 ⁶⁷. None of it waited for the main expiration: the prospectus allows staged early releases, including up to 15 million shares from directors and officers ¹.

The three-month receipts

Chief executive Andrew Feldman sold 37,441 shares on 4 September in 17 lots from $199.18 to $216.62, grossing $7.88 million and cutting his direct stake 69%, to 16,853 shares; he still holds about 13.9 million Class B shares, convertible one-for-one ⁶³. Director Steven Vassallo sold 50,000 shares for $10.5 million the same day↗ ⁸³.

Three-month insider selling totals 1,324,632 shares, $276,984,949 ³. On 23 September, director Lior Susan's Eclipse entities moved 451,118 shares out in kind to partners↗; no cash changed hands, but the shares now sit in more hands ⁹.

The backlog answers, slowly

The buyers' case is contracted, not hoped for: $25.4 billion of remaining performance obligations at 30 June, anchored by a December OpenAI deal for 750 megawatts valued above $20 billion↗ ¹⁰. Second-quarter cloud revenue nearly quadrupled to $126 million, and GAAP revenue rose 74% to $180.1 million↗ ¹¹. The company holds $7.4 billion of cash↗ ¹², about $8.6 billion including restricted cash and investments ¹⁰, and lifted its 2026 core revenue outlook to $880–890 million, a company-defined measure↗ ¹¹¹³.

The fine print is heavier: three customers were 76% of quarterly revenue ¹⁰, and GAAP gross margin ran at 14.2% ¹². Only about 22% of the backlog converts to revenue over the two years to June 2028 ¹⁰.

Two dates, 171 million shares

The IPO sold 34.5 million shares. The prospectus estimates up to 171.1 million could be released↗, nearly five times the float, about $35.4 billion at the 25 September close ¹. The main gate opens at the earlier of the second trading day after third-quarter results, a quarter that ends 30 September, or the 180-day mark in November ¹. Watch the earnings date, then daily volume against whatever Forms 144 follow.