Akamai Shares Soar on $11.6 Billion Anthropic AI Deal; Comcast, Twilio Fall on Downgrades

Shares of Akamai Technologies surged in premarket trading Friday after the company announced a landmark cloud computing agreement with artificial intelligence firm Anthropic. In contrast, Comcast and Twilio saw their shares decline following analyst downgrades.

AI Deal Fuels Akamai Rally

Akamai Technologies (AKAM) stock jumped 21.3% in premarket activity after revealing an $11.6 billion cloud services commitment from Anthropic. The seven-year deal is structured to support the AI company's significant CPU workload requirements on Akamai's distributed cloud infrastructure.

The agreement includes provisions for a potential expansion of up to an additional $9 billion, which could bring the total value to approximately $20 billion. To support this growth, Akamai also disclosed a $1.7 billion hardware supply agreement with Lenovo and Jabil for memory components, underscoring the scale of its planned infrastructure investment.

Analyst Downgrades Pressure Tech and Media

Several companies faced downward pressure from analyst rating changes:

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• Comcast (CMCSA): Shares slipped 1.6% after KeyBanc downgraded the stock to 'Underweight' from 'Sector Weight' and initiated an $18 price target. The firm cited concerns over deteriorating broadband net additions, pressure on average revenue per user, and a steeper-than-expected decline in its theme parks business.
• Twilio (TWLO): The stock fell 3.7% after HSBC downgraded its rating to 'Reduce' from 'Hold'. The bank suggested that investor optimism regarding Twilio's benefits from Meta’s Muse AI agent may have been premature.

Other Notable Movers

Other stocks making significant moves before the opening bell included:

• Prime Medicine (PRME): The stock climbed 11.7% after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) cleared its Investigational New Drug application for PM647, a treatment designed for Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency. The clearance allows the company to proceed with a first-in-human clinical trial.
• Scholastic (SCHL): Shares tumbled 11% after the education company reported fiscal first-quarter 2027 results that missed analyst expectations. Revenue fell 3.9% year-over-year to $216.8 million, while its adjusted loss per share was wider than consensus forecasts.
• Zscaler (ZS): The cloud security firm's stock dropped 3.6% following the announcement of a leadership change in its revenue division. The timing of the executive shift, coming just before the company's investor day, has introduced uncertainty for investors.