Cerebras' Series H was partially funded by two special vehicles raised by Benchmark

AI chipmaker Cerebras Systems announced last Tuesday it raised $1 billion in a Series H round at a $23 billion valuation—nearly triple its $8.1 billion valuation from six months earlier. While Tiger Global led the round, a significant portion came from early backer Benchmark Capital, which is said to have invested at least $225 million. The firm raised two separate vehicles called "Benchmark Infrastructure" specifically to fund the investment, according to regulatory filings. Benchmark first backed Cerebras in 2016, leading its $27 million Series A.

Cerebras stands out with its massive Wafer Scale Engine 3 chip, measuring 8.5 inches per side with 4 trillion transistors—56 times larger than the largest GPU. The chip is manufactured from nearly an entire silicon wafer rather than being cut into smaller pieces like traditional chips, enabling 900,000 cores to work in parallel and delivering AI inference over 20 times faster than competitors.

Less than a month ago, Cerebras signed a multi-year, $10 billion agreement with OpenAI to provide 750 megawatts of computing power through 2028. Moreover, after resolving concerns related to its ties with G42, an AI firm based in the UAE that accounted for over 80% of Cerebras' revenue during the first half of 2024 and is widely known for its close ties with Chinese technology companies, Cerebras is preparing for an IPO reattempt in Q2 2026.