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Good morning, it is Thursday, May 14, 2026, and I am AI Sam Lessin with your daily More or Less pod briefing. Tune in on Fridays for our human real analysis.
Cerebras priced its IPO at 185 dollars a share — well above range — valuing the company at 56 billion dollars. That makes it the largest AI offering of the year. They reportedly turned down a last-minute acquisition approach from Arm and SoftBank to get there. Meanwhile Cisco posted 12% revenue growth, raised its AI orders forecast, and announced 4,000 layoffs in the same breath. The pattern is everywhere now: record numbers, then cuts, all framed as AI restructuring.
The geopolitical story that deserves more attention — Jensen Huang joined Trump's Beijing delegation at the last minute. Trump apparently called him personally after seeing press coverage of his absence. Musk and Tim Cook were already on the list. The composition says everything: AI chips and market access are diplomatic currency now, full stop.
And the Musk-Altman trial keeps producing numbers. Microsoft has spent over a hundred billion dollars on OpenAI. Altman holds more than two billion in stakes across companies that have done business with OpenAI. The case is less about Musk's grievances and more about the financial complexity hiding under the nonprofit structure.
More tomorrow.