TLDR
- Cerebras (CBRS) stock rose 17% to 18% in after-hours trading after a Q3 revenue beat.
- Core revenue hit $230.9 million, up 70% from a year ago, versus $214.7 million expected.
- The company announced a new deal with Microsoft, signed in October.
- Q4 revenue guidance of $310 million to $330 million beat the $271 million analysts wanted.
- Backlog edged up to $26 billion, and the stock is still down about 47% since its May IPO.
Cerebras Systems posted third-quarter results on Thursday that topped Wall Street’s targets. The stock climbed about 18% in extended trading, adding $17.70 to a price near $115.
That jump came after a 3.3% drop during the regular session. Traders had been waiting on a few answers, and the report gave them some.
The AI chipmaker earned an adjusted 12 cents per share. Analysts had expected a loss of 14 cents.
Cerebras $CBRS says it has signed an important cloud deal with Microsoft, CEO Andrew Feldman said on the company's earnings call. pic.twitter.com/JDzGzBYeqK
— Wall St Engine (@wallstengine) November 12, 2026
Core revenue came in at $230.9 million, above the $214.7 million forecast. That is a 70% gain from $135.7 million a year ago.
Growth Slows, but Beats Estimates
The pace did cool from the second quarter, when core revenue grew 103%. Still, the number cleared the bar.
Adjusted operating margin was negative 14%. That is better than the roughly negative 24% the company guided to three months ago.
The company strips out some items to reach its adjusted revenue. It subtracts pass-through revenue and leaves out noncash reductions tied to warrants issued to customers.
Backlog rose slightly to $26 billion, up from $25 billion in the second quarter. A big part of that balance comes from the OpenAI cloud agreement signed at the end of 2025.
OpenAI made up 32% of revenue in the June quarter. That concentration has been on investors’ minds.
Microsoft Joins the Customer List
Cerebras also unveiled a deal with Microsoft. CEO Andrew Feldman said the contract was signed in October.
He told CNBC that revenue from it should start to show up in the first quarter of 2027. Details were thin, as they were with earlier deals.
The company already has agreements with Amazon and Oracle. The Oracle deal came after the quarter ended, so it is not in the backlog number, and the CFO called it “large.”
Feldman pointed to long GPU lead times and higher costs as an opening for Cerebras hardware sales. He also said the company is weighing financing options to keep up with rising demand.
For the fourth quarter, Cerebras expects a core gross margin of 47% to 49%. Analysts were looking for 42.1%.
Revenue is guided to $310 million to $330 million, well above the $271 million consensus. The company also said it expects revenue to triple in 2027, which implies about $2.85 billion versus the $2.92 billion analysts projected.
The results landed on the same day Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang resigned from the company he co-founded. The stock has fallen about 47% since its May debut, and an analyst call was set for 5 p.m. ET.
