Oct 1 (Reuters) - Cerebras Systems, a startup competing

with industry leader Nvidia ( NVDA ) for a slice of the

lucrative AI chip market, said late on Monday its revenue surged

more than threefold in 2023, in a filing to go public in the

U.S.

Initial public offerings in the U.S. have bounced back in

2024 after a two-year dry spell, driven by growing hopes of a

soft landing and stocks trading at record highs. Analysts see

more gains ahead as investor sentiment improves and expect AI

firms to lead the charge for tech listings.

Cerebras' revenue surged to $78.7 million in the 12 months

ended Dec. 31 versus $24.6 million a year earlier. Loss narrowed

to $2.92 per share compared with $4.28 apiece.

The company said 83% of its total annual revenue came from

AI tech group G42, which is partly owned by Abu Dhabi's

sovereign investor Mubadala. In the IPO prospectus, Cerebras

listed its commercial relationship with G42 among the key

factors that can affect its performance.

Citigroup and Barclays are the lead underwriters of the

offering. It is looking to list on the Nasdaq and trade under

the ticker symbol "CBRS".

While Cerebras is yet to reveal the terms of its IPO,

Bloomberg News, citing sources, reported late last month it

could seek to raise up to $1 billion.

AI RACE

The Silicon Valley startup will seek out investors for the

share sale at a time when investor enthusiasm for all AI-linked

chip companies remains robust. In its IPO prospectus, Cerebras

said it expects the AI computing market to grow to $453 billion

in 2027 from $131 billion in 2024.

"It seems fair to suggest that we could see a new wave of

tech companies coming to market, given previous appetite for

innovation among investors in the States," Dan Coatsworth,

investment analyst at AJ Bell, told Reuters.

"Anything AI-related should have an easy story to tell and

investors love a good narrative when they're seeking new

opportunities."

Nvidia's ( NVDA ) stock has seen a monster rally this year, surging

around 140%, solidifying its position as one of the world's most

valuable companies. Its advanced hardware helps OpenAI develop

the underlying software that powers apps such as ChatGPT.

Cerebras is betting its roughly foot-wide chip can

outperform Nvidia's ( NVDA ) hardware, which is a cluster of thousands of

chips stitched together.

In August, Cerebras launched a tool for AI developers that

allows them to access the startup's outsized chips to run

applications, which it said was a much cheaper option than

Nvidia ( NVDA ) processors.