Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] The major averages remain modestly higher at midday.

Though Akamai Tech (AKAM 117.07, +6.66, +6.03%) has given up much of its earlier gain, it remains firmly higher after significantly expanding its relationship with Anthropic through an $11.6 billion contractual commitment over seven years. The agreement will leverage Akamai Cloud's distributed AI infrastructure and software to support Anthropic's accelerating CPU workload demands, with up to another $9 billion of potential commitments, bringing the relationship to as much as $20 billion. AKAM also issued Anthropic warrants at a $111.33 exercise price covering up to 5% of shares outstanding, with 2% tied to the current commitment and the remaining 3% vesting alongside additional revenue commitments. The Anthropic agreement is a major validation point for AKAM's push into distributed AI infrastructure, providing substantially greater visibility into a CIS business that remains relatively small today. It also strengthens AKAM's credibility with other large AI customers, with management noting that recent CIS wins have already expanded its opportunity set.