* Cerebras set for Nasdaq debut later on Thursday

* Chipmaker raised $5.55 billion in its US IPO

* Offering implies valuation of $56.43 billion on a fully

diluted basis

(Updates first paragraph and headline with indications)

By Utkarsh Shetti

May 14 (Reuters) - Shares of Cerebras Systems were

indicated to open 90% higher than their IPO price in the U.S.

market debut on Thursday, as the chipmaker rides a wave of

investor euphoria for companies that are at the heart of the

artificial intelligence boom.

The firm's IPO is the largest this year and comes as

AI-linked stocks push broader markets to record highs despite

challenges to global growth stemming from the Middle East

conflict.

The Sunnyvale, California-based chipmaker, which is a

competitor to industry juggernaut Nvidia ( NVDA ), raised $5.55

billion in an upsized offering, implying a valuation of $56.43

billion on a fully diluted basis.

"If Cerebras trades well, it will reinforce the idea that

there's strong demand for high-potential AI names," said Matt

Kennedy, a senior strategist at Renaissance Capital, which

provides IPO-focused research ​and ETFs.

Founded in 2015, Cerebras sought to challenge conventional

AI computing with its wafer-scale engine, designing chips

roughly the size of a dinner plate to speed up processing.

Unlike traditional GPU-based systems that rely on clusters of

interconnected chips, it packs hundreds of thousands of compute

cores onto a single processor.

The listing marks its second attempt to go public, after it

dropped its plans to list its stock last year. Its partnership

with G42, a UAE-based AI company that provided more than 85% of

its revenue in 2024, had drawn a national security review by the

Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. The

committee eventually cleared the deal.

Since then, Cerebras has secured Amazon ( AMZN ) and OpenAI,

two of the biggest builders of AI infrastructure in the world,

as customers.

AI SPENDING SURGES

As the race to develop faster and smarter AI models heats

up, tech giants are pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into

the ecosystem.

The outsized demand has prompted a gold rush-like frenzy

among investors, with AI-linked stocks seeing eye-popping

returns in hopes that the revolutionary technology will upend

traditional workflows.

The Dow Jones U.S. Semiconductors Index, which

tracks chip heavyweights such as Nvidia ( NVDA ), Qualcomm ( QCOM ), and

Intel ( INTC ), has returned more than 107% over the past year,

compared with the S&P 500's about 26% rise.

Cerebras raised the size and price range of its IPO earlier

this week to manage surging interest in its shares. Sources told

Reuters that the offering had drawn orders for more than 20

times the number of shares available.

Cerebras is set to start trading on the Nasdaq Global Select

Market later on Thursday under the ticker symbol "CBRS."