Cerebras Systems (CBRS) Stock Rises 2% After Analyst Calls OpenAI Fears Overblown

TLDR

• Freedom Capital upgraded Cerebras Systems (CBRS) to Buy from Hold, setting a $209 price target.
• The upgrade follows a 17% selloff tied to reports that OpenAI is using Nvidia GPUs for a fast version of its GPT model.
• Analyst Paul Meeks called the market reaction “exaggerated” and said the OpenAI concerns pose only a minor threat.
• Shares rose nearly 2% on the news, recovering slightly after falling near post-IPO lows.
• Wall Street expects Cerebras revenue to more than triple to $2.95 billion by 2027.

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Cerebras Systems (CBRS) stock climbed nearly 2% on Friday after Freedom Capital upgraded the chipmaker to Buy from Hold. The move comes just days after shares tumbled 17% on fears about its relationship with OpenAI.

Cerebras Systems Inc., CBRS

Analyst Paul Meeks set a $209 price target on the stock. That’s below the Street average of $292, but it marks a shift in tone from Freedom Capital, which had held a Hold rating since before the company’s IPO.

The selloff that sparked this upgrade was triggered by reports that OpenAI is using Nvidia GPUs to power a faster version of its GPT model. Investors took that as a signal that OpenAI might be leaning less on Cerebras hardware going forward.

Meeks pushed back on that read. He said the market’s punishment of the stock was “exaggerated” and called the OpenAI threat minor, even if the reports turn out to be accurate.

Why the Analyst Sees Opportunity

Meeks pointed to demand in the AI inference space, saying it’s expected to outpace supply for years to come. He believes Cerebras will keep landing deals with partners like AMD and Amazon Web Services regardless of what OpenAI does with Nvidia chips.

The thesis leans heavily on Cerebras’ Wafer Scale Engine technology. It’s built to handle AI inference tasks efficiently, which Meeks sees as a structural advantage as the industry shifts toward running AI models rather than just training them.

He also flagged a possible hybrid setup where GPUs handle the initial prefill work on a request, while Cerebras chips take over for the faster decode stage. That kind of split workload could keep Cerebras relevant even in a GPU-heavy pipeline.

The Numbers Behind the Call

Wall Street currently projects Cerebras revenue jumping from an estimated $887 million this year to $2.95 billion by 2027. That’s more than a threefold increase in just two years.

Analysts following the stock say hitting that target depends largely on execution. Specifically, it comes down to whether Cerebras can bring new power and manufacturing capacity online on time and on budget.

Shares were trading at $172.50 at the time of the upgrade. That’s just above the stock’s post-IPO low of $169, a level set back in May 2026.

Freedom Capital’s $209 target is described as the most conservative price target on the Street. The firm says it’s been a fan of the Wafer Scale Engine tech since before the IPO, but was waiting for a better entry price before upgrading.

That wait appears to be over now that shares have pulled back. The firm frames the current price as a favorable entry point for long-term investors willing to look past short-term noise around the OpenAI headlines.

Cerebras stock remains well off its post-IPO low but still carries the scars of this week’s drop. The next test will be whether the company’s order book with AMD and AWS continues to grow at the pace analysts are counting on.