Anthropic commits $11.6 billion to Akamai cloud deal over seven years

Anthropic PBC committed $11.6 billion over seven years to Akamai Technologies for cloud computing infrastructure, Akamai said on Thursday, in the largest contract in Akamai's history. The AI developer also received a warrant for stock that could grow to about 5% of Akamai's outstanding shares as its spending increases. Akamai announced the agreement on 25 September 2026.techcrunch.com+1

The deal matters because it inverts the usual pattern in AI financing. Instead of a supplier investing in the AI lab that buys its products, Akamai — the supplier — is giving its customer a potential equity stake. The commitment is also more than six times the size of a $1.8 billion deal between the two companies reported in May, showing how quickly Anthropic's computing needs have grown as demand for its Claude software has risen.financefeeds.com

Why the deal matters now

The commitment is not ironclad. According to Akamai's securities filing, the deal depends on Akamai meeting certain delivery and service-availability requirements, and either company can end the agreement under certain conditions. Akamai is supplying Anthropic access to central processing units, or CPUs — general-purpose chips that handle work such as running code and browsing the web. Demand for CPUs has grown as AI agents take on more tasks, though Akamai did not say what Anthropic will use them for.

As part of the deal, Akamai issued Anthropic a warrant — the right to buy shares at a set price — for nonvoting preferred stock convertible into 7.7 million common shares, or up to about 5% of the company's outstanding stock, at $111.33 a share. About 2% is expected to vest, or become available to Anthropic, once it makes its first payment under the deal. The rest is tied to Anthropic spending more with Akamai.

How the warrant vests

Each additional $3 billion Anthropic commits to Akamai's cloud services unlocks roughly another 1% of the warrant. That structure means the deal could grow by as much as $9 billion, to about $20 billion in total. It is the first time Akamai has attached a warrant to a cloud deal. Akamai chief executive officer Tom Leighton said the warrant vests with the computing agreement, expected to begin in the second half of 2027, with the rest coming available over the course of the seven-year deal.ventureburn.com

Akamai's spending and revenue

Akamai won't see revenue from the deal in 2026. On an investor call on Thursday, executives said they expect $150 million to $300 million in 2027, starting in the second half, with revenue reaching an annual pace of about $1.7 billion by the end of 2028. Leighton said Akamai's cloud business is growing fast enough that revenue associated with cloud contracts could eclipse sales from its other segments "fairly soon."

Some Wall Street investors have raised concerns about so-called circular AI deals, in which cloud, hardware and AI companies that buy one another's products also invest directly in one another, saying the pacts make it harder to quantify real demand for AI. The warrant flips the more common pattern: here the supplier gives the customer a stake. AMD used a similar structure with OpenAI last year, tying warrants to chip-purchase milestones.

Anthropic is no stranger to such arrangements. Amazon, Google, Microsoft and AMD have all invested or agreed to invest in the company while selling it chips or cloud capacity. Chief executive officer Dario Amodei said last December that Anthropic does not participate in these deals at the same scale as some other players. Akamai generates most of its sales from content delivery and cybersecurity services.

Circular AI deal concerns

Akamai shares rose as much as 17% in after-hours trading on Thursday, reaching US$129.60 at about 4:10pm New York time. Leighton said the company is discussing even more business with all the major players, including hyperscalers — the largest data center operators — and big enterprises. The agreement builds on the earlier $1.8 billion computing deal the two companies struck earlier in 2026.

Akamai expects the Anthropic agreement to begin delivering revenue in the second half of 2027, with $150 million to $300 million that year and an annual run rate of about $1.7 billion by the end of 2028. Leighton said the returns on the roughly $5.5 billion capital spending are strong, and that cloud-related revenue could pass Akamai's other segments in a short time frame.