--- title: "TD Cowen, Cerebras' own underwriter, now marks the stock below its IPO price" description: "TD Cowen, a May bookrunner, cut Cerebras 36 percent to $175, ten dollars under the price it helped sell, and the stock closed at a 52-week low. With OpenAI's newest fast tier reportedly running on Nvidia, the November 12 print becomes the first reading on whether the bookings convert." publisher: "The Inference" section: "Silicon" published: 2026-10-21T13:16:49.362Z modified: 2026-10-21T13:16:49.362Z canonical: https://theinference.org/article/td-cowen-cerebras-own-underwriter-now-marks-the-stock-below-its-ipo-price language: en keywords: "Cerebras, IPO, AI Chips, OpenAI, Analyst Ratings" --- # TD Cowen, Cerebras' own underwriter, now marks the stock below its IPO price > TD Cowen, a May bookrunner, cut Cerebras 36 percent to $175, ten dollars under the price it helped sell, and the stock closed at a 52-week low. With OpenAI's newest fast tier reportedly running on Nvidia, the November 12 print becomes the first reading on whether the bookings convert. On October 19, TD Cowen, one of the underwriters that sold [Cerebras Systems](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/cerebras-systems)' May IPO at $185 a share, [cut its 12-month price target 36.4 percent to $175](https://thecryptobasic.com/2026/10/20/cerebras-stock-slides-as-td-cowen-cuts-target-below-ipo-price/), ten dollars below the price it helped set [1]. The stock closed the same day at $120.66, down 5.15 percent after a 10.52 percent drop on October 16, a 52-week low and 34.8 percent below the offering price [1]. Five months ago this was the hottest listing in US tech: priced at $185 on May 14, opened at $350, raised $5.55 billion, near a $95 billion market cap on day one [2]. Nothing about the business turned in the meantime. Q2 revenue rose 103 percent year over year to $209.9 million, and 2025 swung to $87.9 million of net income on $510 million of revenue [2]. [UBS kept Buy and raised its target to $330](https://startupfortune.com/cerebras-stock-sank-below-its-ipo-price-as-the-ai-selloff-hit-chips/) [2]. ## The order book is real, the customer is the question The bull case rests on $25.4 billion of remaining performance obligations at June 30, a large share of it tied to [OpenAI](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/openai)'s commitment to buy 750 megawatts of Cerebras inference capacity through 2028 [1]. That concentration cuts both ways: the agreement is the largest single driver of the backlog, so the stock trades on one customer's intentions as much as on its own results. The demand question sharpened on September 29, when the research firm [SemiAnalysis](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/semianalysis) reported that OpenAI's newest fast tier, GPT-6.1 Sol Ultrafast, runs on [Nvidia](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/nvidia) GPUs rather than Cerebras' wafer-scale chip [1]. Cerebras had confirmed its processors powered the earlier GPT-5.6 tier; neither company has named the supplier of the 6.1 tier, and [Sam Altman](https://theinference.org/markets/people/sam-altman) [called Cerebras a "close partner" on October 2](https://theinference.org/article/altman-calls-cerebras-a-close-partner-as-openai-s-fastest-tier-runs-on-nvidia) without settling it [1]. ## Pressure comes from OpenAI's plans and Groq's redesign The question of whether OpenAI is now building silicon of its own has its own thread in [The Inference's October 20 coverage](https://theinference.org/article/broadcom-lends-anthropic-42-billion-then-raises-50-billion-for-openai-s-chips), and it hangs over every line of this order book [5]. A parallel pressure is visible at [Groq](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/groq), which now [plans 3D-stacked DRAM for its next inference chip](https://cryptobriefing.com/groq-stacked-dram-next-inference-chip/), a concession that capacity, not just speed, decides who serves the largest models [5]. ## November 12 is the reading that matters *Chart: **One of Cerebras' own underwriters now marks the stock below its $185 offer price** Bar chart comparing Cerebras shares at $120.66 on October 19, the TD Cowen target at $175, the $185 IPO price and the UBS target at $330.* *Share price levels in US dollars per share. Close and TD Cowen target as of October 19, 2026; the $185 IPO price dates from May 14, 2026; the UBS $330 target is the bank's standing target, raised after the Q2 2026 report. Sources: The Crypto Basic, Startup Fortune. [1][2]* Supply has not cleared either. The October 1 lockup freed about 13 percent of IPO shares, [Form 144 filings cover roughly $84 million of planned insider sales](https://theinference.org/article/insiders-sold-387-7-million-of-cerebras-stock-19-4-million-more-shares-unlock-wednesday), and CEO Andrew Feldman sold $5.92 million, trimming his stake about 28.5 percent [2]. The date to circle is November 12, when Cerebras [reports its first full quarter as a listed company](https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2026/10/20/3384934/0/en/cerebras-systems-announces-date-of-third-quarter-2026-financial-results.html) [3]. A backlog concentrated in one customer, marked below its own offering price by one of its own bookrunners, is a stock priced for that customer walking. The November print shows whether the customer stays. ## Takeaway TD Cowen, a bookrunner on Cerebras' $185 IPO, cut its target to $175 as the stock closed at a 52-week low of $120.66. With OpenAI's newest tier reportedly on Nvidia, the November 12 earnings print is the first test of whether the $25.4 billion backlog converts. ## Sources 1. [The Crypto Basic, Cerebras Stock Slides as TD Cowen Cuts Target Below IPO Price, October 20, 2026](https://thecryptobasic.com/2026/10/20/cerebras-stock-slides-as-td-cowen-cuts-target-below-ipo-price/) 2. [Startup Fortune, Cerebras stock sank below its IPO price as the AI selloff hit chips, October 19, 2026](https://startupfortune.com/cerebras-stock-sank-below-its-ipo-price-as-the-ai-selloff-hit-chips/) 3. [GlobeNewswire, Cerebras Systems Announces Date of Third-Quarter 2026 Financial Results, October 20, 2026](https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2026/10/20/3384934/0/en/cerebras-systems-announces-date-of-third-quarter-2026-financial-results.html) 5. [Crypto Briefing, Groq plans stacked DRAM for its next inference chip to fix a memory problem, October 21, 2026](https://cryptobriefing.com/groq-stacked-dram-next-inference-chip/) --- TD Cowen, Cerebras' own underwriter, now marks the stock below its IPO price — The Inference. Canonical: https://theinference.org/article/td-cowen-cerebras-own-underwriter-now-marks-the-stock-below-its-ipo-price