Nvidia(US:NVDA) Zhi Tong Cai Jing·2026-01-14 03:27Core Viewpoint - The AI chip supplier Cerebras Systems Inc. is in discussions for a new funding round of approximately $1 billion, aiming to enhance its competitiveness against Nvidia, which currently holds a 90% market share in the AI chip sector. The valuation of Cerebras is expected to rise to $22 billion, reflecting a significant increase of 170% from its previous valuation of $8.1 billion in September 2022 [1][3][7]. Group 1: Company Overview - Cerebras Systems is led by CEO Andrew Feldman and is actively seeking to challenge Nvidia's dominance in the AI chip market [2][3]. - The company provides remote AI computing services to major clients, including Meta Platforms Inc. and IBM, and aims to significantly improve the cost-effectiveness and energy efficiency of its AI computing clusters compared to Nvidia's offerings [3][5]. Group 2: Technology and Competitive Edge - Cerebras employs a unique "Wafer-Scale Engine" (WSE) architecture, allowing it to place entire AI models on a single large chip, which enhances inference performance and memory bandwidth [5][8]. - The latest CS-3 system, featuring the WSE-3 chip, reportedly outperforms Nvidia's Blackwell architecture by approximately 21 times in specific large language model inference tasks, while also being more cost-effective in terms of hardware and energy consumption [7][8]. Group 3: Market Dynamics and Competition - The AI inference market is experiencing rapid growth, with demand doubling every six months, prompting Cerebras to leverage this trend through funding and an IPO to increase its market presence [6][9]. - Nvidia's recent partnership with Groq, which includes a $20 billion non-exclusive licensing agreement, highlights the competitive pressure in the AI chip market, as Nvidia seeks to maintain its market share through diversification of hardware technology and strengthening its AI application ecosystem [4][10].