After a prolonged journey toward its public market debut, Cerebras Systems is finally approaching the finish line. The AI chip company announced Monday that it plans to sell 28 million shares priced between $115 and $125 each. At the upper end of that range, the offering would raise $3.5 billion and give the company a market capitalization of $26.6 billion.

That represents a significant valuation increase in just a few months for late-stage investors who participated in its $1 billion Series H round at a $23 billion valuation back in February. The IPO would also benefit OpenAI and several of its executives. If Cerebras successfully prices its shares at or above the high end of the range, it will mark the largest tech IPO of 2026 so far. This could also signal strong market appetite for even bigger upcoming offerings, such as SpaceX, and potentially OpenAI and Anthropic.

Cerebras produces a specialized AI chip called the Wafer-Scale Engine 3, which competes directly with GPU-based AI processors. The company claims its chip offers faster inference performance while consuming less power than rival solutions. Inference refers to the computational work required to process user inputs.

A broad roster of high-profile investors stands to gain from a successful IPO. According to the company’s SEC filing, the largest shareholders—each holding more than a 5% stake—include Rick Gerson’s Alpha Wave; Benchmark (represented by partner Eric Vishria); Lior Susan’s Eclipse; Fidelity; and Foundation Capital (via partner Steve Vassallo). The company’s investor list also features 1789 Capital, Abu Dhabi Growth Fund, Abu Dhabi’s G42, Alpha Wave Global, Altimeter, AMD, Atreides Management, Coatue, Moore Strategic Ventures, Tiger Global, Valor Equity Partners, and VY Capital.

Additionally, Cerebras lists a lengthy roster of angel investors on its website. These include OpenAI founder and CEO Sam Altman, OpenAI co-founder and president Greg Brockman, former OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever (now leading his own AI startup), OpenAI board member and Quora CEO Adam D’Angelo, Sun Microsystems and Arista co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim, Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan, and several other tech luminaries. Although Sam Altman’s stake was not large enough to require disclosure in SEC filings, he was quoted in the company’s S-1 registration statement.

This is because Cerebras’ relationship with OpenAI extends beyond angel investments—and has even been cited as evidence in Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI. According to legal filings from Musk’s attorneys, OpenAI had at one point considered acquiring Cerebras. Musk claims he was unaware that multiple OpenAI executives held personal investments in the chipmaker. That acquisition never materialized, but OpenAI went on to become one of Cerebras’ largest customers. In fact, the S-1 reveals that in December, OpenAI provided Cerebras with a $1 billion loan, secured by warrants granting OpenAI the right to purchase more than 33 million shares. While OpenAI is not currently a major shareholder, it could become one in the future.

Cerebras originally aimed to go public in 2024, but the process was delayed by a federal review of an investment from Abu Dhabi-based cloud provider G42, which was—and remains, according to the company—a major customer. That IPO attempt was eventually shelved. A year later, Cerebras sought additional funding. In September, it raised $1.1 billion at an $8.1 billion post-money valuation, led by Fidelity and Atreides. A few months after that, Cerebras signed a new multi-year agreement with OpenAI worth more than $10 billion, which included the loan and warrants. In February, it completed its final mega-round, the $1 billion Series H.

If investors embrace the IPO, OpenAI and its executives stand to benefit in multiple ways. That outcome appears increasingly likely. According to Bloomberg, banks are already fielding $10 billion in orders for the $3.5 billion worth of shares on offer. Such overwhelming demand suggests the company may price its shares even higher than the announced range, raising additional capital for itself and generating even greater returns for its investors.