PeopleofSuperintelligence

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Sean Lie

Sean Lie is a computer architect and Cerebras co-founder whose work centers on hardware for AI computing. He earned BS and MEng degrees in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT, worked as an architect at SeaMicro and AMD, and co-founded Cerebras in 2015. At Cerebras, he led the technical architecture for the Wafer-Scale Engine, spoke about seven open GPT models trained on CS-2 systems, and co-wrote work on inference-time computation. As of October 2026, he is Cerebras' CTO.

Works
24
Citations
830
h-index
9

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 15 October 2026.

Timeline

  1. Before 2015

    SeaMicro and AMD architecture

    Before Cerebras launches in 2015, he serves as a lead architect at SeaMicro and later as a Fellow and Chief Data Center Architect at AMD.

  2. 2015

    Co-founding Cerebras

    In 2015, he joins Andrew Feldman, Gary Lauterbach, Michael James, and Jean-Philippe Fricker to launch Cerebras and bring wafer-scale computing to market.

  3. 2019

    Architecting the Wafer-Scale Engine

    In 2019, Cerebras launches the WSE-1 and CS-1; Lie, a co-founder and Chief Hardware Architect, leads the technical architecture and design.

  4. By March 2022

    MIT engineering degrees

    By March 2022, he holds BS and MEng degrees in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT and focuses on computer architecture and hardware/software codesign.

  5. March 2023

    Seven open GPT models

    In March 2023, he describes Cerebras' release of seven GPT models trained on CS-2 systems, with their training methodology and weights shared under Apache 2.0.

  6. May 2023

    Explaining wafer-scale design

    In May 2023, he publishes a deep dive on Cerebras' hardware/software co-design for deep learning, covering its core architecture, scale-up, and scale-out.

  7. June 2025

    The Cerebras scaling law

    In June 2025, he and James Wang argue that faster inference lets reasoning models use more computation and can improve model intelligence.

  8. As of October 2026

    CTO at Cerebras

    As of October 2026, he is Cerebras' co-founder and CTO.

Sources and credits

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  1. Thinking Outside the Die: Trillion Transistor Chips for the ML Accelerator of the Future. | Microsystems Technology Laboratories mtl.mit.edu. Checked 15 October 2026.
  2. About Cerebras | AI Inference and Wafer-Scale Computing cerebras.ai. Checked 15 October 2026.
  3. Cerebras Systems Unveils the Industry’s First Trillion Transistor Chip - Cerebras cerebras.ai. Checked 15 October 2026.
  4. The five technical challenges Cerebras overcame in building the first trillion-transistor chip | TechCrunch techcrunch.com. Checked 15 October 2026.
  5. Cerebras Systems Releases Seven New GPT Models Trained on CS-2 Wafer-Scale Systems - Cerebras cerebras.ai. Checked 15 October 2026.
  6. Cerebras Architecture Deep Dive: First Look Inside the HW/SW Co-Design for Deep Learning [Updated] - Cerebras cerebras.ai. Checked 15 October 2026.
  7. The Cerebras Scaling Law: Faster Inference Is Smarter AI cerebras.ai. Checked 15 October 2026.
  8. Gimlet Labs Adds Cerebras to Deliver Ultrafast AI Inference through Gimlet Cloud Deployment Combines Cerebras Wafer-Scale Compute with Gimlet’s Inference Cloud to Deliver Up to 3,000 Tokens per Second cerebras.ai. Checked 15 October 2026.