Akamai announced on Thursday that Anthropic will pay $11.6 billion over seven years for cloud infrastructure.
The figure exceeds six times the value of a previous agreement between the two firms, which Bloomberg reported in May as being worth $1.8 billion. The contract is not absolute; Akamai’s securities filing states it relies on the delivery of specific service-availability requirements. Either party may terminate the agreement under certain conditions.
A bet on CPUs
This represents the largest deal in Akamai’s history and continues Anthropic’s high consumption of computing power. It also places a wager on a less hyped sector of AI infrastructure: CPUs. These general-purpose chips handle tasks like running code and browsing the web. Demand for them has increased as AI agents take on more work, though Akamai did not specify how Anthropic intends to use them.
Akamai will not recognise revenue from this agreement this year. During an investor call on Thursday, executives said they expect between $150 million and $300 million in 2027, starting in the second half. Revenue is projected to reach an annual pace of roughly $1.7 billion by the end of 2028.
To expand capacity, Akamai plans to spend about $5.5 billion. It is also increasing this year’s capital spending by approximately $1.7 billion to purchase components such as memory in advance.
As part of the agreement, Akamai issued Anthropic a warrant for nonvoting preferred stock convertible into 7.7 million common shares. This gives Anthropic the right to buy shares at $111.33 a share, representing up to about 5% of the company’s outstanding stock. Approximately 2% becomes available once Anthropic makes its first payment. The remainder is tied to further spending. Each additional $3 billion committed to Akamai’s cloud services triggers roughly another 1%, meaning the deal could grow by as much as $9 billion to reach about $20 billion in total.
This is the first time Akamai has attached a warrant to a cloud deal, Bloomberg reported.
The contract reverses the usual pattern in circular AI deals, where suppliers like chipmakers and cloud providers invest directly in the AI labs buying their products. Here, the supplier gives its customer a potential stake that grows as Anthropic’s spending increases. AMD used a similar structure with OpenAI last year, linking warrants to chip-purchase milestones.
Anthropic is not new to such arrangements. Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and AMD have all invested or agreed to invest in the company while selling it chips or cloud capacity. CEO Dario Amodei told the New York Times last December that Anthropic does not participate in these deals at the same scale as some other players.
Akamai shares rose by as much as 17% in after-hours trading on Thursday, the Wall Street Journal reported.
What it means
For people building AI systems, the shift suggests a move away from relying solely on graphics processing units. The focus is turning toward standard processors that handle everyday computing tasks. This change means the hardware required to run these models is becoming more common and widely available, potentially lowering barriers to entry for certain types of workloads.
