Insiders sold $387.7 million of Cerebras stock; 19.4 million more shares unlock Wednesday
On Monday Cerebras closed at its lowest price since going public, and the next tranche of locked shares becomes eligible on Wednesday. Until the unlock calendar empties on November 9, supply is setting the price.
Richard Tang · 3 min read
Cerebras, the AI chipmaker, fell by a tenth on Monday to $146.62, its lowest close since going public in May 12. The filings explain the move better than the roadmap does. Insiders sold $387.7 million of stock last quarter 3. About 19.4 million more shares become eligible to sell on Wednesday 1. Until this calendar runs out, supply is setting the price.
The supply schedule runs out on November 9
Cerebras's lockup was never one 180-day freeze: it lets shares out on 11 separate dates 4. Shares have come out in biweekly waves since mid-August, and the schedule has reached three bigger tranches: September 30, this Wednesday, and October 28 4. Each of those waves is roughly 8 percent of all shares outstanding 5. Monday's whole session traded 18.1 million shares, more than double its recent average 1. Everything still locked frees up no later than November 9 4.
The stock peaked at $386 on its first day in May 6. It now trades roughly a fifth below the $185 offering price, leaving anyone who bought the IPO underwater 16. The freed stock has been selling. Sales disclosed by chief technology officer Sean Lie and director Steven Vassallo cleared near $210 a share 3. Chief executive Andrew Feldman and Lie sold more than $240 million between late August and late September, under trading plans adopted shortly after the IPO 5.
From $386 on day one to $146.62: every IPO buyer is now underwater
Data
| Value | |
|---|---|
| First-day high, May | $386 |
| Insider sales cleared near | $210 |
| IPO offering price | $185 |
| Record low, October 12 | $146.98 |
| Close, October 12 | $146.62 |
Institutions put $668 million on the other side
The buyers are on record too. Five funds opened new Cerebras positions worth about $668 million in the June quarter, led by Value Aligned Research Advisors and Wellington Management 3. The analyst consensus still reads Moderate Buy, with an average target of $299.90 3. Both camps are betting on the same company. One of them is wrong, and nothing filed yet says which.
Insiders sold $387.7 million; five funds answered with $668 million
Data
| Value | |
|---|---|
| Insider sales, Q3 (Form 4) | $387.7M |
| Value Aligned, Q2 13F | $241.9M |
| Wellington, Q2 13F | $194.9M |
| State Street, Q2 13F | $105.3M |
| Dragoneer, Q2 13F | $88.4M |
| Montanova, Q2 13F | $38M |
Where OpenAI's fastest tier runs decides the company
What Cerebras sells is the question: dinner-plate-sized chips for inference workloads, leased from its own data centers as a cloud service 5. On September 30, research firm SemiAnalysis posted that the "Ultrafast" mode of OpenAI's$1.18T — OpenAI, private, latest valuation $1.18T GPT-6.1 Sol model runs on Nvidia GPUs rather than Cerebras hardware 5. Neither company has confirmed it 1. OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman called Cerebras "a close partner" without naming the chips behind that tier 15. Microsoft+0.87% — Microsoft, up 0.87 percent today widened the race on Monday, saying its Maia chips become the primary inference system for its own products from 2027 7.
The business underneath is growing and burning
Contracted but undelivered work stood at $25.4 billion at the end of June, a large share of it tied to OpenAI 14. Core revenue more than doubled year over year last quarter, and management raised its full-year outlook 8. The same quarter lost $2.98 a share against a $0.21 consensus 3. Demand is strong, the company says, and the constraint on growth is available capacity 8.
Wednesday's unlock can set this week's price. What the company is worth will be set by wherever OpenAI runs its next fast tier, and no one has confirmed that 1.
Deepdive
AI-generated from this story and its cited sources. Not investment advice.
