The initial public offering of American artificial intelligence firm Cerebras Systems may be delayed due to national security considerations regarding a planned investment by G42.
According to a Reuters report, Cerebras’s IPO roadshow was scheduled for early next week, but the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States has yet to complete its review of the deal with G42, a technology conglomerate based in the United Arab Emirates.
The report cited unnamed sources as saying that Cerebras is optimistic that CFIUS will approve the G42 stake in the company and that the IPO will proceed, but the timing of the committee’s clearance could alter the plans for the offering.
Cerebras and G42 jointly notified CFIUS of the Mideast company’s commitment to purchase $335 million worth of Cerebras stock by April 2025, a stake of over 5 percent in the Sunnyvale, California-based company. The filing was later amended with a notice specifying that the shares G42 will purchase are nonvoting securities not subject to a CFIUS review.
G42 and other Middle Eastern companies have drawn increasing scrutiny in Washington amid concerns that China uses them as a conduit to access advanced AI technologies. The U.S. concerns have prompted G42, which accounted for 83 percent of Cerebras’ revenue in 2023, to cut its ties with a Chinese multinational technology company. The move paved the way for Microsoft’s $1.5 billion investment in the Emirati company, which was announced in April.