Asia Tech Wire (Aug 2) -- Nvidia rival and artificial intelligence (AI) chip maker Cerebras Systems Inc. plans an initial public offering (IPO) as early as October, according to Bloomberg.

The report cited people familiar with the matter as saying that Cerebras has added Barclays to its lineup of IPO underwriters.

Earlier, news broke that Cerebras had secretly filed for a U.S. IPO and selected Citigroup as the lead underwriter for its IPO.

Founded in 2016, Cerebras Systems is a company that specializes in powerful computer chips designed to handle AI and high-performance computing.

With Nvidia currently dominating the AI chip market, Cerebras aims to take market share from Nvidia.

Over the past year, Cerebras has repeatedly made headlines, claiming that its chips are not only more powerful than Nvidia's graphics processing units (GPUs), but also more cost-effective.

Existing investors in Cerebras include Abu Dhabi Growth Fund and Coatue Management.

Noticeably, OpenAI co-founder and CEO Sam Altman was a participant in Cerebras' $80 million Series D funding round.

The AI chip maker was valued at more than $4 billion after announcing in November 2021 that it had closed a $250 million Series F funding round.

As of the Series F round, Cerebras' financing totaled $720 million.