Anthropic bets $11.6 billion on Akamai for AI cloud capacity

The briefing

Anthropic is putting $11.6 billion into Akamai cloud services over the next seven years, a figure well over six times the size of the $1.8 billion deal the two companies signed in May. Akamai revealed the agreement Thursday and says it is the largest contract it has ever signed. But the money is conditional: Akamai must hit delivery and service availability targets, and both companies hold clauses that let them walk away.

The structure is the interesting part. Alongside the spending commitment, Akamai is giving Anthropic a warrant for up to 7.7 million shares, about 5 percent of the company, at $111.33 each. Roughly 2 percent of that warrant vests when Anthropic makes its first payment, and every further $3 billion of cloud spending earns about 1 percent more, so the whole arrangement could eventually total near $20 billion.

Akamai expects nothing from the deal this year. Its forecast: $150 million to $300 million in the second half of 2027, growing to roughly $1.7 billion a year by the end of 2028. Building the capacity will cost about $5.5 billion, including $1.7 billion of extra capital spending this year. The market approved: Akamai shares jumped as much as 17 percent in after hours trading.

Why it matters

The AI industry's cloud deals have started to blur the line between customer and owner. AI labs increasingly secure compute by taking stakes in their suppliers, and suppliers return the favor. Anthropic's May deal with Akamai already included a warrant; this one expands both the spending and the equity in lockstep, tying Akamai's upside directly to Anthropic's appetite for compute.

It is also a bet on a corner of AI infrastructure that gets less attention than GPUs. Akamai's pitch is CPUs, the general purpose chips that do the grunt work of agentic computing: executing code, fetching web pages, shuffling files around. As agents take on more of that work, demand for ordinary compute is rising fast. For Akamai, a company built on content delivery, a potential $20 billion AI cloud business would be a transformation. The 17 percent after hours pop suggests the market agrees.

Key details

• $11.6 billion over seven years, well over six times the $1.8 billion May deal; Akamai says it is the largest contract it has ever signed.
• Money is conditional: Akamai must hit delivery and service targets, and both companies hold clauses that let them walk away.
• Warrant for up to 7.7 million shares, about 5 percent, at $111.33; 2 percent vests on first payment, about 1 percent per further $3 billion, up to near $20 billion total.
• No revenue expected in 2026; $150 to $300 million in the second half of 2027; roughly $1.7 billion a year by end of 2028.
• Akamai expects about $5.5 billion in capacity spending, including $1.7 billion of extra capital spending this year.
• Akamai shares jumped as much as 17 percent in after hours trading.