Full Breakdown
Akamai Secures $11.6 Billion CPU Cloud Deal with Anthropic
By Drooid · · How we work
Core Deal Overview
- Who: Akamai Technologies Inc. and Anthropic PBC.
- What: A seven-year agreement for Anthropic to purchase CPU cloud services valued at $11.6 billion, with an optional expansion of up to $9 billion—potentially exceeding $20 billion total.
- When: Announced in September 2026; service delivery slated for the second half of 2027.
- Where: Services will run on Akamai’s globally distributed cloud infrastructure.
- How: Anthropic will consume CPU capacity; Akamai will invest $5.5 billion in servers, chips, networking gear, and related hardware. The contract includes a warrant allowing Anthropic to acquire up to ~5 % of Akamai’s common stock at $111.33 per share, with roughly 2 % vesting immediately.
Background & Context
Akamai, known for content-delivery networking and cybersecurity, is expanding into cloud infrastructure. Earlier in 2026 it disclosed a $1.8 billion AI-related deal later identified as Anthropic. The new contract is more than six times larger, reflecting a shift toward CPU-heavy inference and “agentic” workloads such as tool calls, code execution, and web searches.
Data & Statistics
- Contract value: $11.6 billion base + up to $9 billion optional = > $20 billion total.
- Capex: $5.5 billion earmarked for capacity build-out; $1.7 billion of that slated for 2026 hardware pre-purchases.
- Revenue timeline: $150 million–$300 million expected in 2027; full-run rate of about $1.7 billion per year by the end of 2028.
- Equity component: Warrant for up to 7.7 million shares (?5 % of Akamai’s stock); ~2 % vests with the baseline contract, the remainder tied to incremental spend.
Official Statements & Responses
- Ed McGowan, CFO of Akamai, said no revenue will be recognized in 2026; the first revenue stream will begin in the second half of 2027, with an initial $150 million–$300 million and a projected $1.7 billion annual run rate by 2028.
- Tom Leighton, Akamai CEO, noted the capital spend is a “big step up in capex” and that Akamai is pursuing additional business with other cloud operators and enterprises.
Conflicting Reports & Gaps
- Service start date: Sources describe the launch as “late 2027,” “second half of 2027,” and “late second quarter 2027.” All refer to the same general period.
- Revenue run-rate: The $1.7 billion annual figure is a company estimate; independent verification is not provided.
Verbatim Quotes
- “Anthropic is advancing the AI revolution, and we are thrilled they chose Akamai’s capabilities for building and operating AI infrastructure at scale,” — Dr. Tom Leighton, Akamai chief executive
- “Subject to any termination described below and satisfaction of certain delivery and service availability requirements, Anthropic has committed to pay the Company approximately $11.6 billion in the aggregate under the Project Plans,” — Reuters Akamai, on the investor
What’s Next
- The initial warrant tranche will vest when Anthropic makes its first payment. Additional vesting will occur in three 20 % increments, each tied to an extra $3 billion of spend, potentially unlocking the remaining ~3 % of Akamai’s stock.
- Akamai plans to allocate the bulk of its $5.5 billion capex to hardware acquisition in 2026, aiming to have capacity ready for the 2027 service launch.