Akamai, the US cloud and content delivery company, has signed an $11.6 billion cloud agreement with Anthropic, the AI developer.
The shares rose more than 20% in early premarket trading on Friday as investors weighed a contract that greatly expands Akamai's role in AI infrastructure.
The deal
The agreement, announced on Thursday, covers seven years of services supporting Anthropic's CPU workloads.
CPUs, or central processing units, are the general-purpose chips that handle everyday computing tasks.
The deal allows for a further $9 billion expansion, which Akamai says would take the potential commitment to about $20 billion.
That larger figure is a possibility, not money already committed.
Beyond the AI chips
The focus on CPUs is telling.
Most talk about AI infrastructure centres on the specialised chips used to train and run models.
This deal highlights demand for the wider computing services needed to run AI products at scale.
The commercial opportunity stretches across several layers of the infrastructure behind what users see.
A stake in the supplier
The deal also ties the two companies together financially.
Anthropic receives a warrant that could eventually represent about 5% of Akamai's shares.
A warrant gives the right to buy shares on agreed terms, and this one only vests if certain conditions are met, including further commercial commitments.
That gives Anthropic a potential stake in its supplier's success while rewarding a bigger relationship.
For existing Akamai shareholders, it adds a consideration alongside the extra revenue: dilution if new shares are eventually issued.
The cost of delivery
Delivering the capacity will be expensive.
Akamai estimates about $5.5 billion of capital expenditure tied to the initial commitment.
It expects to spend a further $1.7 billion in 2026 securing critical components, including memory.
It has left its revenue guidance for this year unchanged.
The filing describes arrangements with Lenovo, the computer maker, and authorises Jabil, the electronics manufacturer, to buy about $1.7 billion of memory components.
Behind the headline contract sit procurement schedules, equipment deliveries and the work of bringing capacity online.
What it means for both sides
For Akamai, the opportunity comes with execution risk.
A large contract gives visibility over future revenue, but the company still has to deliver reliable services and earn a decent return on the money it spends.
For Anthropic, the deal shows how growth brings long-term obligations well beyond building models.
Securing computing capacity has become a major strategic task in its own right.
Friday's share price jump captures the excitement.
The more lasting story will emerge as the infrastructure is delivered, services go live and the economics of the partnership become clear.
