Akamai inks $11.6 bn seven-year cloud infrastructure deal with Anthropic
Cybersecurity and cloud provider Akamai Technologies on Friday said it expanded its strategic partnership with AI safety and research company Anthropic with an $11.6 billion contractual commitment over seven years, according to a company statement.
The companies estimated the total capital expenditures (Capex) related to the commitment at approximately $5.5 billion over the contract period.
Akamai said it anticipates no impact on its 2026 revenue guidance, while projecting an increase of approximately $1.7 billion in 2026 capital expenditures to pre-purchase critical supply chain components, including memory.
The multi-year agreement is designed to support Anthropic’s accelerating CPU workload demands by leveraging Akamai Cloud’s distributed artificial intelligence infrastructure and specialised software suite.
The deal adds to the more than $2.8 billion in multi-year Cloud Infrastructure Services (CIS) commitments across Akamai’s customer base previously disclosed this year, reflecting growing demand for enterprise AI infrastructure.
“Anthropic is advancing the AI revolution and we are thrilled they chose Akamai’s capabilities for building and operating AI infrastructure at scale,” said Tom Leighton, co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) at Akamai.
Leighton added that Akamai’s expanding global footprint and experience serving large enterprises position the firm to act as an infrastructure provider for secure and responsible AI applications.
As part of the increased alignment, Akamai issued a warrant to Anthropic for non-voting convertible Series B Preferred Stock representing 7.7 million shares, or up to 5 per cent of Akamai’s common stock outstanding, at $111.33 per share.
A portion of the warrant representing approximately 2 per cent of Akamai’s common stock is expected to vest in connection with the $11.6 billion commitment, according to the company.
The remaining 3 per cent will vest as the commitment expands up to an additional $9 billion within the seven-year warrant term, with each additional $3 billion cloud services purchase vesting 1 per cent.
