Akamai Stock Gains as Anthropic Cloud Deal Signals Differentiation From Larger Rivals

Shares of Akamai Technologies (AKAM) jumped 21% to $133.71 in premarket trading on Friday, Sept. 25, after the company agreed to supply cloud-computing services to AI developer Anthropic in a deal valued at about $12 billion.

MarketWatch described the deal as evidence of Akamai's edge over the larger cloud providers. It also commits Akamai to spending billions of dollars before the revenue arrives.

The terms

Anthropic will pay $11.6 billion over seven years to use CPU capacity from Akamai Cloud's distributed AI infrastructure and software. The two companies also have an option to expand the agreement by another $9 billion of revenue. JPMorgan analysts said that option follows "a path of low resistance" to being exercised.

As part of the deal, Akamai is giving Anthropic warrants for up to 5% of its shares outstanding, with an exercise price of $111.33, close to the stock's closing price on Thursday, Sept. 24. Warrants give the holder the right, but not the obligation, to buy shares at a set price in the future. With the stock trading well above that price before Friday's open, the warrants already carry value for Anthropic, and existing shareholders face dilution if they are exercised.

The cost of getting there

The revenue will build slowly. Akamai expects no revenue from the deal this year, about $150 million to $300 million in 2027, and a continued ramp to $1.7 billion a year.

Before then, Akamai has to build the capacity. The company expects to spend $5.5 billion in capital expenditure on the deal, including $1.7 billion this year. Akamai has $4.6 billion in cash and access to another $1 billion that banks have agreed to lend.

JPMorgan analysts said Akamai may need to raise money next year. Chief Financial Officer Edward McGowan did not rule that out on a call with analysts. "If we need additional capital, we'll certainly have a discussion with our board and with our senior management team and do what we think is best for shareholders overall," he said.

Why CPUs are Akamai's advantage

Most attention in AI infrastructure has gone to graphics processing units, or GPUs, the chips used to train large models. Akamai's deal is built on central processing units, or CPUs, which need less power. Morgan Stanley analysts described this as "a dynamic that is not well-understood by the market when it comes to running AI workloads."

Morgan Stanley calculated that operating margins on the deal will be about 30%.

The contract also caps a fast build-up in Akamai's AI business. Analysts at KeyBanc said it was "unthinkable" how quickly Akamai has grown its AI inference business, the part that runs trained models to answer requests. Commitments grew from 2 to 5 megawatts in October 2025 to 95 to 105 megawatts now.

Akamai is best known for its distributed network, which delivers web content and runs computing close to end users. The Anthropic deal puts that network to work on AI inference at a much larger scale.

Capital needs and revenue from the deal

• Whether Akamai raises capital in 2027, and in what form, with $5.5 billion in planned spending against $4.6 billion in cash and $1 billion in available bank credit.
• Revenue from the deal in 2027, against the $150 million to $300 million range.
• Whether Akamai and Anthropic exercise the option for another $9 billion.
• Any further AI inference contracts that show whether the CPU-based approach can attract other customers.