Akamai announced a landmark seven-year infrastructure agreement with Anthropic valued at $11.6bn, with potential expansion of an additional $9bn bringing the total commitment to approximately $20bn. The arrangement includes a warrant grant to Anthropic for 7.7 million shares on an as-converted basis, representing about 5% of Akamai's common stock at an exercise price of $111.33. This marks the first time Akamai has extended warrant equity to a cloud customer.

The warrant structure takes shape as non-voting convertible Series B preferred stock, with roughly 2% vesting upon the initial $11.6bn commitment. The remaining 3% vests only if the expansion materializes, incrementing at 1% for every additional $3bn in services. Akamai will furnish Anthropic with access to central processing units, building upon a $1.8bn arrangement the two firms established in May. Following the announcement after US market close on Thursday, Akamai shares climbed as much as 17% in late trading to $129.60.

Anthropic is advancing the AI revolution and we are thrilled they chose Akamai's capabilities for building and operating AI infrastructure at scale

Tom Leighton, Akamai CEO and co-founder

Capital requirements and financial expectations

Akamai projects capital expenditure of roughly $5.5bn to fulfill the contract obligations. The company is increasing its 2026 capital spending allocation by approximately $1.7bn to pre-purchase supplies, including memory components. Despite these substantial investments, Akamai stated the arrangement leaves its 2026 revenue guidance unchanged. The $5.5bn figure represents more than six times the capital Akamai deployed across all of 2025.

According to Akamai leadership, the contract is expected to commence in the second half of next year, generating between $150m and $300m in revenue during that period. The company anticipates this relationship will scale to an annual run rate of approximately $1.7bn by 2028. Leighton characterized the warrant arrangement as significant but justified in this context.

It's a serious step, but I think in this case it made sense to do. It helps bring the companies together.

Tom Leighton

Some Wall Street observers have flagged concerns regarding so-called circular AI deals, in which companies purchase each other's offerings while simultaneously making investments in one another. Critics contend such arrangements obscure genuine market demand for artificial intelligence capabilities.

Anthropic's expanding compute infrastructure strategy

The Akamai agreement represents one of several major compute infrastructure commitments Anthropic has secured throughout the year. In August, the company finalized a $10bn arrangement with Volta. September reporting revealed Anthropic as the customer underlying Rum Group's $13.7bn compute contract. Additionally, Anthropic has established its inaugural Australian data centre lease and obtained chip access through partnerships with Google and SpaceX.

Source: The Next Web