Shares of Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM) surged Friday after the cloud and cybersecurity company announced an $11.6 billion agreement with Anthropic, giving Akamai one of the largest contracts in its history and dramatically expanding its role in AI infrastructure.
Akamai shares initially jumped roughly 20% to 22% in extended trading Thursday following the announcement. The stock remained sharply higher during Friday’s regular session, gaining about 7%, as investors assessed the long-term revenue opportunity and the capital required to support the agreement.
Anthropic Commits $11.6 Billion to Akamai
Under the seven-year agreement, Anthropic will use Akamai Cloud’s distributed infrastructure and software to support rapidly growing CPU workloads at scale.
The distinction between CPU and GPU computing is important. Anthropic and other frontier AI companies require enormous GPU clusters to train and run their models, but they also generate significant demand for conventional CPU computing to handle surrounding workloads, including data processing and other application infrastructure.
The initial contract represents $11.6 billion of committed spending over seven years, rather than revenue that Akamai will recognize immediately. Akamai expects service delivery to begin in the second quarter of 2027, with revenue ramping during the second half of that year.
The company expects to reach the full contracted revenue run rate by the end of 2028. After that point, Akamai projects roughly $1.7 billion in annual revenue from the agreement through the remainder of the contract.
Deal Could Grow to Nearly $20 Billion
The partnership could become substantially larger.
Anthropic has the option to purchase up to an additional $9 billion of Akamai cloud services, potentially increasing the total commitment to approximately $20 billion over the seven-year period.
Akamai is also giving Anthropic warrants that could ultimately represent approximately 5% of Akamai’s outstanding common stock. The warrants cover the equivalent of 7.7 million shares at an exercise price of $111.33.
Approximately 2% of Akamai’s outstanding shares are tied to the initial $11.6 billion commitment. The remaining 3% would vest as Anthropic expands its purchases, with roughly another 1% vesting for each additional $3 billion in cloud services.
The structure gives Anthropic a direct financial incentive to expand its relationship with Akamai while potentially turning the AI developer into one of the infrastructure company’s largest strategic shareholders.
Akamai Plans $5.5 Billion Infrastructure Buildout
The contract also requires Akamai to make a substantial upfront investment.
The company estimates cumulative capital expenditures associated with the initial agreement at approximately $5.5 billion. About $1.7 billion is expected to be spent during the fourth quarter of 2026, largely to secure critical supply-chain components, including memory.
A further $3.1 billion is expected in 2027 as Akamai builds the infrastructure required to support Anthropic, followed by approximately $700 million in 2028.
Despite the size of the contract, Akamai said the agreement will have no impact on its 2026 revenue guidance because meaningful service delivery will not begin until next year.
The deal nevertheless changes the longer-term outlook for Akamai’s cloud business. Before the Anthropic announcement, the company had already disclosed more than $2.8 billion in multi-year Cloud Infrastructure Services commitments from customers during 2026.
Akamai Stock Jumps as AI Strategy Gains Scale
The market reaction was immediate. Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM) shares jumped as much as roughly 20% after hours Thursday, with Reuters reporting an extended-trading gain of about 22% at one stage.
By Friday’s regular session, the advance had moderated but remained substantial, with the stock trading approximately 7% higher.
The rally reflects the scale of the contract relative to Akamai’s existing business. The company generated about $4.2 billion in total revenue in 2025, meaning the $11.6 billion contracted commitment represents several years of Akamai’s historical company-wide sales, although that revenue will be recognized gradually over the life of the agreement.
It also gives Akamai a stronger position in a cloud infrastructure market dominated by hyperscalers such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud.
Akamai’s competitive pitch is different. Its infrastructure spans thousands of distributed locations, allowing computing resources to operate closer to users and applications rather than relying exclusively on enormous centralized data centers.
Anthropic’s decision to commit billions of dollars to that infrastructure provides a major validation of Akamai’s strategy as AI companies increasingly diversify their computing suppliers.
For investors, however, the agreement also introduces execution risk. Akamai must spend approximately $5.5 billion to build the necessary infrastructure, while Anthropic could eventually become an unusually large customer.
Still, the scale of the agreement explains the sharp reaction in AKAM shares. What was previously a growing cloud business inside a company best known for content delivery and cybersecurity now has a contracted AI workload capable of generating approximately $1.7 billion in annual revenue at full run rate.
