Morning Highlights: Cerebras raises $5.55 billion in IPO, Cisco shares soar 20%

AI chip maker Cerebras has raised $5.5 billion in one of the biggest tech-IPOs of recent years and the largest listing in New York this year. TSMC increased its estimate of the global semiconductor market to $1.5 trillion by 2030 amid explosive demand for AI chips. These and other topics are covered in our review of key events for the morning of Ma 14.

AI chip maker Cerebras raised $5.55 billion in a U.S. IPO, placing shares at $185 - above its previously reported range. The AI chip maker was valued at $56.4 billion amid excitement around the semiconductor sector and a boom in artificial intelligence investment, CNBC reports. The company will list on the Nasdaq under the ticker CBRS.

Cerebras, which competes with Nvidia, Google and Microsoft, is actively developing cloud-based AI services. Previously, Arm and SoftBank wanted to buy the company, and OpenAI considered merging with it back in 2017 for the sake of advantage in the race for general artificial intelligence (AGI). Cerebras' investors include Fidelity, Benchmark and Foundation Capital.

Defense startup Anduril has raised $5 billion in a round from Thrive Capital and Andreessen Horowitz, doubling its valuation to $61 billion ahead of an expected IPO, MarketWatch reports. CEO Brian Schimpf said the funds will be used to scale manufacturing, research and infrastructure amid rising geopolitical risks.

Founded by Oculus creator Palmer Luckey, the company is actively strengthening its position in the US defense sector: Anduril has been awarded a $20 billion military contract, joined Donald Trump's Golden Dome missile defense project, and is involved in the delivery of more than 10,000 hypersonic missiles.

The US Senate confirmed Kevin Warsh as the new head of the Federal Reserve System: 54 senators voted for his nomination against 45, Yahoo Finance writes. The appointment took place amid pressure from Donald Trump, who has been urging the regulator to cut rates for more than a year.

Warsh will lead the Fed at a challenging time: inflation in the U.S. remains above the target 2%, and rising prices are being amplified by tariffs and a jump in oil prices due to the war with Iran.

Cisco shares jumped nearly 20% in the postmarket after strong reporting and a forecast above market expectations, CNBC reported. The company's revenue rose 12% to $15.84 billion and net income rose to $3.37 billion. Cisco also raised its forecast for AI infrastructure orders from $5 billion to $9 billion this fiscal year.

At the same time, the company announced that it would lay off about 4,000 employees - less than 5% of its workforce. Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins said that the company is redistributing investments in favor of AI-related areas and is ready to make "difficult decisions" for the sake of leadership in the new technological race.

TSMC has raised its forecast for the global semiconductor market to more than $1.5 trillion by 2030 from its previous estimate of $1 trillion, Reuters reports. The company named AI and high-performance computing as the main growth driver, which is expected to account for 55% of the market.

The largest contract chip maker is also accelerating its expansion: the company is ramping up production of cutting-edge chips, expanding chip packaging capacity for Nvidia, and building new fabs in the U.S., Japan and Germany. The company expects demand for AI chip components to grow more than 10 times faster than 2022 by 2026.

- Japan's broad Topix index was down 0.7 percent, while the Nikkei 225 was down 0.2 percent.

- Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index was up 0.5 percent, while mainland China's CSI 300 Index was down 1.1 percent.

- In South Korea, the Kospi index rose 1 percent, while the Kosdaq fell 0.4 percent.

- Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was falling 0.1 percent.

- Futures on the S&P 500 rose by 0.1%. Futures on Nasdaq Composite - by 0.3%. Exchange contracts on Dow Jones Industrial Average - by 0.2%.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor