Cerebras Q2 earnings 2026: Revenue misses as inflation growth cools

Cerebras Q2 earnings 2026 headlines landed alongside a slightly more encouraging inflation reading in CNBC’s premarket Morning Squawk roundup for Thursday, Aug. 13. The chipmaker raised its full-year outlook but reported revenue below Wall Street expectations, while July consumer-price data showed annual inflation cooling modestly even as energy-related risks persisted.

Cerebras reported $180 million in second-quarter total revenue, below the $194 million expected by analysts surveyed by LSEG, CNBC reported. Its adjusted loss was 5 cents a share, narrower than the expected 17-cent loss.

The company lifted its 2026 core-revenue forecast to $880 million to $890 million, from a previous range of $855 million to $865 million. It forecast current-quarter core revenue of $214 million to $216 million.

Shares fell about 14% in extended trading after the results, CNBC reported. The Morning Squawk newsletter later put the after-hours decline at 15%.

Why did Cerebras shares fall after its second-quarter earnings?

The reported facts are that Cerebras raised guidance, posted second-quarter revenue below expectations and then declined in extended trading. CNBC did not establish a single reason for the share move.

The company also reported $210 million in core revenue, a separate measure that includes pass-through revenue, compared with $180 million in total revenue. Cerebras said its cloud business generated $126 million in revenue in the June quarter. The results were its second since the company’s May initial public offering.

Chief Executive Andrew Feldman told CNBC that demand for artificial intelligence was “through the roof.” He said customers were paying a premium for the company’s specialty inference chips and that gross margins were increasing. Cerebras forecast core gross margin of 38% to 40% for the current quarter, according to CNBC.

Inflation eases, but energy prices remain a risk

July’s headline consumer-price reading increased modestly from the prior month, but the annual rate of growth slowed slightly, CNBC reported. Traders scaled back bets on a Federal Reserve rate increase in September after the report.

Energy and airline prices continued to face upward pressure from supply shocks linked to the Iran war, according to CNBC. Rising crude prices also presented upside risk for the next inflation report. The producer price index, which tracks wholesaler inflation, was scheduled for release later that morning.

What was known about Strait of Hormuz traffic?

CNBC’s Morning Squawk headline flagged falling traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, but the available report did not provide a current vessel count or a fresh measure of the decline. The clearest directly reported context was from April 10, when CNBC said tanker traffic there was near a standstill despite a U.S.-Iran ceasefire agreement announced that week.

For investors, the day’s premarket briefing paired those unsettled energy-price pressures with a softer annual inflation trend and a closely watched earnings reaction in AI hardware.

This story draws on original reporting from CNBC.