Akamai Soars 17% on $11.6B Anthropic AI Deal; Zscaler, Select Water Also Move

Shares of Akamai Technologies surged in extended trading after the company announced a massive, seven-year cloud partnership with artificial intelligence firm Anthropic valued at $11.6 billion. The deal positions Akamai as a key infrastructure provider for AI workloads, driving significant investor optimism.

Akamai's Strategic AI Partnership

Akamai's stock jumped 17% in after-hours trading on the news of its expanded commitment with Anthropic. The agreement is designed to provide cloud infrastructure to support Anthropic's distributed CPU and AI model-building requirements.

As part of the strategic alignment, Akamai issued a warrant to Anthropic for up to 7.7 million shares, which represents approximately 5% of its outstanding stock. The warrant has an exercise price of $111.33 per share, with vesting tied to the execution of contract milestones over the seven-year term.

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M&A and Executive News Drive Other Movers

Other companies also saw significant price movement in the post-market session driven by company-specific news.

• Select Water Solutions (WTTR): The company's stock rose 13% after it entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Pilot Water Solutions. The deal is valued at $700 million in cash and equity, with up to an additional $15 million in contingent consideration. The acquisition is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2026 and will significantly expand Select's water midstream operations in the Delaware Basin.
• Zscaler (ZS): Shares of the cybersecurity firm fell 4% following the appointment of Ross Tackett as its new Chief Revenue Officer, effective October 1, 2026. While Tackett has extensive experience in enterprise software sales, the unexpected executive transition appeared to prompt some near-term profit-taking from investors.