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Akamai Tech (AKAM) is soaring today after significantly expanding its relationship with Anthropic through an $11.6 bln 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 bln of potential commitments, bringing the relationship to as much as $20 bln. 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.

• Ramp: No revenue is expected from the agreement in 2026, with the buildout requiring roughly $5.5 bln of total capex, including an additional $1.7 bln in Q4 to secure critical components. Revenue begins in 2H27 at roughly $150-300 mln for the year, with $3.1 bln of capex planned in FY27 and another $700 mln in FY28, before reaching a roughly $1.7 bln annual run rate by year-end 2028.
• Scale: The deal significantly expands its CIS business, which generated just $99 mln of revenue in Q2, albeit up 39% yr/yr. AKAM had already accumulated more than $2.8 bln of multi-year CIS commitments entering this announcement, bringing total signed TCV to approximately $14.4 bln, which management expects to generate roughly $2.2 bln of annual recurring revenue once fully ramped.
• CPU architecture: Notably, the Anthropic agreement is entirely CPU-based, highlighting the need for substantial CPU capacity alongside GPUs in increasingly large AI deployments. Management noted that CPUs can also support more revenue per megawatt given their greater power efficiency, while AKAM's broader $14.4 bln CIS portfolio includes a mix of CPU and GPU workloads.
• Capacity: AKAM estimates its signed CIS commitments will require roughly 95-105 MW of power. As part of the buildout, AKAM is funding approximately $1.7 bln of memory purchases through Jabil, while entering a seven-year agreement with Lenovo for hardware, software and related services.

Briefing.com Analyst Insight

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. At the same time, the strategy is becoming increasingly capital intensive: Q2 capex had already climbed to $347 mln, or 32% of revenue, from $206 mln and 19% in Q1, and AKAM now plans an additional ~$1.7 bln in Q4, well ahead of the revenue contribution. Execution will therefore be important, with management expecting temporary margin pressure as capacity ramps, while the Anthropic warrants also introduce some dilution. Partially offsetting those risks, the contract is structured as take-or-pay once capacity is delivered and does not require AKAM to refresh the underlying hardware during the seven-year term. Still, the $11.6 bln commitment provides a major proof point for AKAM's cloud strategy, validating both the scale of customer demand and the company's ability to support increasingly large AI infrastructure deployments.