$60B AI chip darling Cerebras almost died early on, burning $8M a month
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- Cerebras Systems completed a May 14 IPO, valuing the company at roughly $60 billion.
- Andrew Feldman said the firm burned $8 million per month and nearly $200 million in 2019 while tackling a wafer‑scale chip packaging problem.
- Cerebras’ wafer‑scale chip was 58 times larger than typical AI chips and consumed 40 times more power, forcing the team to invent custom packaging tools, including a 40‑screw‑bolt machine.
- OpenAI (and AWS) now buy Cerebras’ AI inference chips after the company solved its packaging challenges in July 2019.
Why it matters: Cerebras' $60B market cap validates wafer‑scale AI chips, giving customers like OpenAI a faster inference option, while investors reap outsized returns after the company survived a $200M cash‑burn crisis.
