Cerebras soars on debut capping largest-ever US semiconductor IPO

Good morning. Here’s what happened overnight and what you need to know today.

1.

Going Cerebras: Cerebras Systems soared in its Nasdaq debut, capping the largest US tech IPO since Uber’s 2019 listing. The raising is also the largest-ever US semiconductor listing, topping Arm Holdings’ IPO in 2023 and gives Cerebras a fully diluted market value of more than USD100 billion. Shares opened at USD350 against an IPO price of USD185, before rising to as much as USD385 and then paring back some gains to close 68% higher at USD311.07 each. Cerebras makes large Wafer-Scale Engine chips optimised for fast AI inference, the process by which models quickly interpret and respond to prompts, and claims its hardware runs AI models 15 times faster than competitors. It counts OpenAI and Amazon Web Services among its customers. The AI chipmaker raised USD5.55 billion, nearly 60% more than its original target, after pricing above a range that was itself revised higher earlier this week, with the offer more than 25 times oversubscribed, according to CEO Andrew Feldman. “Nobody wants to wait,” he said. Feldman’s stake is now worth USD3.2 billion, according to Bloomberg, while co-founder Sean Lie’s holding is worth USD1.7 billion. (Capital Brief)(Bloomberg)(CNBC)(WSJ)

2.

Summit stakes: Xi Jinping warned Donald Trump that mishandling Taiwan could push the China-US relationship into “an extremely dangerous place,” according to Chinese state media, in the sharpest moment of an otherwise warm summit in Beijing. According to Xinhua, Xi, referring to Taiwan, told Trump: “If handled poorly, the two countries could collide or even enter into conflict, pushing the entire China-US relationship into an extremely dangerous place.” The White House readout of the talks made no mention of Taiwan, focusing instead on trade and the Iran war. Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed the issue was raised, telling NBC: “They always raise it on their side. We always make clear our position and we move on to other topics.” On Iran, Trump and Xi agreed the Strait of Hormuz should remain a free waterway and that Iran should not be able to exact payments for use of the shipping lanes, the White House said. Xi expressed interest in increasing China’s purchases of US oil to reduce its dependence on Middle East supplies, it added. Trump said Xi told him directly he would not share military equipment with Iran. “He said that strongly,” Trump said. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Iran’s oil storage had filled up and Tehran would need to curtail production. Trump invited Xi to visit the White House on September 24. It was not immediately clear if Xi had accepted. On Friday, Trump and Xi will have tea followed by a working lunch before Trump departs for the US. (White House)(WSJ)(NYT)(Reuters)

3.

Trump card: The US Justice Department is planning to drop criminal fraud charges against Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, with an announcement possible as soon as this week, unnamed sources familiar with the matter told Bloomberg and the New York Times. The SEC is also moving to settle a parallel civil fraud case, which would likely involve a monetary penalty, the people told the publications. The reversal follows an unusual meeting last month at Justice Department headquarters in Washington, where Adani’s new legal team, led by one of US President Donald Trump’s personal lawyers Robert Giuffra Jr, presented prosecutors with roughly 100 slides arguing they lacked basic evidence and jurisdiction to bring the case, the Times reported. One slide offered a sweetener. If charges were dropped, Adani would invest USD10 billion in the American economy and create 15,000 jobs, one of the people told the paper. Prosecutors later told Giuffra the investment offer would play no role in the case’s resolution, though it received a favourable response from at least one senior Justice Department official at the meeting, according to the report. Adani, Asia’s richest person, was indicted in November 2024 over an alleged USD250 million bribery scheme to secure solar energy contracts in India. (Capital Brief)(NYT)(Bloomberg)

4.

Boeing order: Boeing shares fell 4.7% after Donald Trump announced China had agreed to buy 200 Boeing jets, with the figure falling well short of market expectations. Speaking in a Fox News interview with host Sean Hannity during his visit to Beijing, where the US president met Chinese President Xi Jinping, Trump said: “One thing he agreed to today, he’s going to order 200 jets. That’s a big thing. Boeings.” He added that “Boeing wanted 150, they got 200.” It is unclear which types of planes are included. No Chinese airline had confirmed the order at the time of writing, and Boeing did not immediately comment. Bloomberg had reported in March that the two sides were closing in on a 500-jet order for 737 Max aircraft, and Jefferies had reportedly estimated the order could reach as many as 500 planes. If completed, the deal would be Boeing’s first major sale into China in nearly a decade. (Capital Brief)(Fox)(Bloomberg)(Reuters)

5.

Carveout chase: Startup founders are scrambling for a seat at Jim Chalmers’ table after the Treasurer opened the door to negotiations over a CGT carveout for the tech and startup sector. But with no consultation paper and no clear process, the question now is who walks through it, Capital Brief’s Bronwen Clune reports. For many in the startup ecosystem, Labor’s sweeping changes to capital gains tax were a case of “here we go again” — arguably the third time since the Albanese government came to power that a major reform risks unintended consequences for the sector. Ben Grabiner at Side Stage Ventures is convening about 20 founders to push for what he calls an “Australian Entrepreneurs’ Relief”, that is zero per cent CGT on founder and early employee equity gains up to $20 million, modelled on the UK’s system. Cheryl Mack, who successfully led the pushback against Labor’s sophisticated investor threshold changes, is preparing to step up again, while healthtech VC firm Tenmile is mobilising around the impact on deep tech and life sciences. A central grievance is what Grabiner describes as an accidental two-tier system: “Startup investors are being treated better than startup founders,” he said. (Capital Brief)

6.

Book build: The swift expansion of US billionaire Ken Griffin’s financial trading house Citadel Securities in Australia has largely gone under the radar, even as its local profits soar. Regulatory filings viewed by Capital Brief show Citadel Securities almost tripled net profit in Australia from USD28.8 million in 2024 to USD74.2 million last year, making it one of the most profitable trading operations locally relative to its book size, just a decade after opening its first Sydney office in 2016. Unlike its rivals, its accounts are remarkably candid about where in the market it is most active: as of 31 December 2025, it held about USD840 million in long equity positions, with about 65% concentrated in the communications sector, 92% of that within Asia, a sector dominated by heavyweight names like Alibaba, Tencent and Samsung. Citadel’s gross revenue and total assets almost doubled last year to USD241million and around USD1 billion, respectively. That is still well behind total assets at rivals Susquehanna International Group (USD15.7 billion), Optiver (USD10.4 billion) and IMC Trading (USD3.5 billion), though all three have operated out of Sydney for around three decades. And it shows no signs of slowing, with 13 new roles open in its Sydney office. (Capital Brief)

7.

Xero sum: Asked to make sense of another $1 billion wiped from her company’s valuation after a seemingly solid set of full-year results, Xero chief executive Sukhinder Singh Cassidy gave the standard answer. “Believe it or not, I don’t spend a lot of time worrying about the in-day share price,” she told Capital Brief. “I think a lot about creating long-term value.” But with the stock now down 60% against the benchmark ASX 200 over the past 12 months, shareholders are struggling to see an end to the turmoil. Xero reported a full-year net profit of NZD167 million, down 27% year on year, though underlying earnings rose 24% to NZD789 million, ahead of estimates, while revenue jumped 31% to NZD2.8 billion. Citi analyst Siraj Ahmed called it a “strong result”, pointing to momentum in the US market and better-than-expected subscriber growth and FY27 guidance. But Milford portfolio manager Jason Kururangi, who holds Xero shares on behalf of clients, struggles to see a way out of the accounting platform’s share price death spiral. “It doesn’t seem to matter what you do if you’re a SaaS company,” he said. “You’re in the eye of the storm of the SaaSpocalypse. It’s basically pretty tough no matter what you do operationally. It does feel like a dramatic reaction to an okay, or in line, set of numbers.” SaaS companies and their investors may be waking up to the idea that this isn’t a temporary downturn, and that the lofty valuations they attracted less than a year ago may not be coming back. (Capital Brief)

8.

AI split: Bloomberg reported Apple’s two-year partnership with OpenAI has become strained, with OpenAI preparing possible legal action after failing to see the expected benefits from the deal. According to the report, OpenAI lawyers are actively working with an outside legal firm on a range of options, including sending Apple a notice alleging breach of contract, though no final decisions have been made. OpenAI still hopes to resolve its issues outside of court, the publication said citing unnamed sources. Any legal move would likely come after the conclusion of the Elon Musk trial. OpenAI executives believed the arrangement, which wove ChatGPT into Apple software including Siri, could eventually generate billions of dollars per year in subscriptions, the report said. Instead, Apple customers are overwhelmingly more likely to turn to the standalone ChatGPT app than access OpenAI’s technology through Siri and other Apple services, according to user studies conducted by the AI startup. “We have done everything from a product perspective,” an unnamed OpenAI executive told Bloomberg. “They have not, and worse, they haven’t even made an honest effort.” The rift is deepening as Apple prepares to open its platforms to rival AI providers including Anthropic’s Claude and Google Gemini later this year. (Bloomberg)