Akamai Signs $11.6 Billion Computing Deal With Anthropic, Shares Jump 20%

Quick Facts

• Akamai signed an $11.6 billion, seven-year computing contract with Anthropic, with an option to expand to roughly $20 billion total.
• Akamai shares surged more than 20% in after-hours trading on Sept. 24, reaching approximately $129.60.
• Revenue from the deal will not begin until the second half of 2027, with an estimated annualized run rate of $1.7 billion by the end of 2028.

Akamai Technologies announced on Sept. 24 a seven-year, $11.6 billion cloud infrastructure contract with Anthropic, the largest deal in the company's 27-year history. The agreement sends Akamai shares up more than 20% in after-hours trading.

The contract commits Akamai to supply Anthropic with dedicated CPU-based cloud computing capacity and related managed support services. Capital spending tied to the agreement is estimated at $5.5 billion in total, more than six times what Akamai spent on capital expenditures in all of 2025.

Akamai is raising its 2026 capital expenditures by approximately $1.7 billion to secure supply chain components, including memory, ahead of deployment. The deal is structured as take-or-pay, guaranteeing Akamai payment upon delivery.

The contract includes an option for Anthropic to commit up to $9 billion more, bringing the potential total value to roughly $20 billion. The agreement lifts Akamai's 2026 year-to-date signed contract value to approximately $14.4 billion.

No revenue will be recognized in 2026. Revenue begins in the second half of 2027, with full-year 2027 estimates of $150 million to $300 million. The contract is expected to reach an annualized run rate of approximately $1.7 billion by the end of 2028.

As part of the deal, Akamai issued Anthropic an equity warrant covering nonvoting convertible Series B preferred stock. The warrant could convert into up to 5% of Akamai's common shares at an exercise price of $111.33, nearly identical to the closing price of $110.41 on the day of the announcement. About 2% vests with the current commitment. Each additional $3 billion Anthropic spends vests roughly another 1%.

CEO Tom Leighton said on an investor call that the warrant's current value is "slightly over $150 million," which he called "very small" relative to the $11.6 billion transaction size. Leighton said this is the first time Akamai has offered a warrant as part of a cloud deal. "It's a serious step, but I think in this case it made sense to do," he said. "It helps bring the companies together."

The two companies had been working together before this announcement. In May, Akamai disclosed a $1.8 billion, seven-year commitment from an unnamed frontier model company, which Bloomberg later identified as Anthropic. That disclosure pushed the stock up more than 26% in after-hours trading. Akamai also reported 40% year-over-year growth in Cloud Infrastructure Services revenue during the first quarter of 2026.

The new agreement falls under existing Project Plans 2 and 3, tied to a Master Services Agreement between the two companies dated May 5, 2026.

Leighton said Akamai is in talks with other major technology companies, including large data center operators and enterprises. He added that Akamai's cloud business is growing fast enough that cloud contract revenue could soon surpass sales from its other segments. "We're not looking necessarily at a long time frame for that to happen," he said.

Read more: Akamai shares jump more than 20% on $11.6B Anthropic computing deal