It has been about a month since the last earnings report for Cerebras (CBRS). Shares have added about 15.1% in that time frame, outperforming the S&P 500.
Will the recent positive trend continue leading up to its next earnings release, or is Cerebras due for a pullback? Before we dive into how investors and analysts have reacted as of late, let's take a quick look at its latest earnings report in order to get a better handle on the important drivers.
Cerebras Q1 Earnings Beat Estimates, Revenues Increase Y/Y
Cerebras reported a first-quarter 2026 loss of 4 cents per share, 71.43% narrower than the Zacks Consensus Estimate of a loss of 14 cents. The GAAP net loss per share narrowed year over year to 22 cents from 46 cents.
Revenues were $193.4 million, up 94% year over year and 13% sequentially, and topped the consensus estimate by 7.04%. Strength was driven by demand for AI infrastructure, with cloud and other services revenues up 178% and a new OpenAI agreement for 750 megawatts of high-speed inference compute. Core revenues, a non-GAAP measure that excludes customer warrant amortization and data center pass-through items, were $191.3 million, up 92% from the year-ago quarter.
The quarter benefited from strength across hardware and cloud-based offerings. Hardware revenues were $110.6 million, rising 59% year over year, while cloud and other services revenues were $82.8 million, reflecting the rapid adoption of Cerebras’ AI infrastructure platform.
Cerebras Gains From Strategic AI Deals
The company announced a multi-year deal with OpenAI valued at more than $20 billion. Under the agreement, OpenAI will deploy 750 megawatts of Cerebras’ high-speed inference compute over the next several years.
Cerebras also co-launched Codex-Spark, a model built for near-instant coding workflows where latency matters. The model delivers more than 1,000 tokens per second, underscoring the company’s focus on faster inference for interactive AI applications.
CBRS Expands Cloud Reach With AWS
Cerebras began a multi-year partnership with Amazon’s cloud computing platform, Amazon Web Services (AWS), to bring fast inference to a broader base of startups, AI-native companies and enterprises. The partnership expands the company’s distribution reach at a time when demand for low-latency AI infrastructure continues to scale.
The companies plan to launch a disaggregated inference strategy. AWS Trainium 3 chips will perform the prefill stage, while the Cerebras CS-3 will handle high-speed inference for decoding, combining the strengths of both platforms.
Cerebras’ Product Trials Add Momentum
The company launched enterprise customer trials of Kimi K2.6 and Gemma 4 during the quarter. Kimi K2.6 is an open-weight frontier model, and the first trillion-parameter model served on Cerebras.
Kimi K2.6 achieved performance approaching 1,000 tokens per second, as independently measured by Artificial Analysis. Gemma 4 31B, part of Google DeepMind’s open-weight Gemma family, runs an order of magnitude faster on Cerebras based on scores on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index.
CBRS’ Q1 Operating Details
In the first quarter of 2026, the GAAP gross margin was 45%. Hardware’s gross margin was 41%, while cloud and other services’ gross margin came in at 49%.
The core gross margin was 47%. The core hardware gross margin was 42%, whereas the core cloud and other services gross margin was 53%, showing a stronger profitability profile for the company’s non-GAAP cloud and services operations.
Operating expenses totaled $101.2 million. Research and development expenses were $75.5 million, sales and marketing expenses were $14.7 million, and general and administrative expenses were $11 million, reflecting continued investment in product innovation and market expansion.
The GAAP loss from operations was $15 million compared with $28.5 million in the year-ago quarter. The core operating loss narrowed to $3.5 million from $19.3 million a year earlier.
In the first quarter of 2026, adjusted EBITDA turned positive at $12.7 million from a loss of $15.4 million in the prior year.
CBRS’ Balance Sheet
The balance sheet strengthened meaningfully. As of March 31, 2026, cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash, and short-term investments were $3.3 billion.
Net cash provided by operating activities was $12.3 million compared with net cash used in operating activities of $54.9 million.
CBRS’ Outlook Signals Continued Expansion
For the second quarter of 2026, Cerebras expects core revenues of $194 million, implying 88% year-over-year growth. The core gross margin is expected to be 36-38%.
For 2026, management expects core revenues of $855-$865 million, indicating a 69% year-over-year surge at the midpoint. The core gross margin is projected to be 38-41%.
How Have Estimates Been Moving Since Then?
It turns out, fresh estimates have trended upward during the past month.
The consensus estimate has shifted 27.2% due to these changes.
VGM Scores
Currently, Cerebras has a average Growth Score of C, a score with the same score on the momentum front. Charting a somewhat similar path, the stock has a score of D on the value side, putting it in the bottom 40% for value investors.
Overall, the stock has an aggregate VGM Score of D. If you aren't focused on one strategy, this score is the one you should be interested in.
Outlook
Estimates have been trending upward for the stock, and the magnitude of these revisions looks promising. Interestingly, Cerebras has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). We expect an in-line return from the stock in the next few months.
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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
