Eight year-old waferscale AI chip developer, Cerebras Systems, has confidentially filed for an IPO, reports Reuters.

The company is reported to be looking for a valuation of around $4 billion – the valuation at which its 2021 funding round was made.

According to Reuters, a confidential filing is often pursued when postponing financial disclosure is seen as desirable.

IMG_0227-150x150.webpThe third and latest iteration of Cerebras’ 46k sq mm wafer (pictured) contains 900,000 cores and 44 GB of on-chip memory.

Among individual investors in Cerebras are: Sam Altman, CEO OpenAI; Andy Bechtolsheim, Founder Sun Microsystems; Dadi Perlmutter, Former EVP, Chief Product Officer, GM Intel Architecture Group; Pradeep Sindhu, Founder Juniper Networks; Ilya Sutskever, Founder and Chief Scientist OpenAI; Lip-Bu Tan, CEO Cadence and Fred Weber Former CTO AMD.

Among VCs investing in the company are: Coatue, Benchmark, Altimeter, Vy Capital, Foundation Capital and Eclipse.

There is an argument for raising IPO funds for an AI play now, because scepticism is growing about its commercial prospects.

In June, a Goldman Sachs report said that, despite $1 trillion in future capex commitments, AI “has little to show for it so far.”

In July the Economist reckoned that AI had had “almost no economic impact” and, also in July, The Information said that OpenAI could lose $5 billion this year and could run out of money in 12 months.