Akamai Shares Surge 20% After Securing $11.6 Billion AI Cloud Deal With Anthropic

Akamai Technologies Inc. (AKAM) shares surged as much as 20% in after-hours trading Thursday after the company announced it secured a massive seven-year contract with artificial intelligence firm Anthropic valued at $11.6 billion. The deal positions Akamai as a key infrastructure provider for one of the leading companies in the AI sector.

Deal Details

Under the agreement, Akamai will provide its distributed cloud computing infrastructure and software to support Anthropic's substantial CPU workload requirements. This major contract builds on more than $2.8 billion in multi-year cloud infrastructure commitments Akamai had announced earlier this year, signaling significant momentum in its cloud services division.

"Anthropic is advancing the AI revolution and we are thrilled they chose Akamai’s capabilities for building and operating AI infrastructure at scale," said Dr. Tom Leighton, co-founder and CEO of Akamai, in a statement.

Financial Implications

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As part of the transaction, Akamai issued a warrant to Anthropic for the purchase of non-voting convertible preferred stock. This warrant, if fully exercised and converted, would represent approximately 7.7 million shares of Akamai's common stock, or up to 5% of the company's outstanding shares, at an exercise price of $111.33 per share.

The vesting of the warrant is tied to the contract's execution and potential expansion:

• Approximately 2% of Akamai’s common stock is expected to vest in connection with the initial $11.6 billion commitment.
• The remaining 3% would vest if the commitment expands by an additional $9 billion over the seven-year term.

Akamai estimates total capital expenditures related to the deal will be approximately $5.5 billion. The company stated the agreement will have no impact on its 2026 revenue guidance but will increase its 2026 capital expenditures by approximately $1.7 billion to pre-purchase critical supply chain components like memory.