Artificial intelligence startup Anthropic has agreed to a seven-year, 11,6 Milliarden Dollar contract for CPU computing capacity with cloud and security provider Akamai, according to company announcements. The agreement represents the largest contract in Akamai’s history and marks a major infrastructure expansion for the AI developer as it scales its operations.
Agreement Structure and Financial Terms
The baseline 11,6 Milliarden Dollar commitment spans seven years, with provisions allowing the deal to expand by an additional 9 Milliarden Dollar, bringing the total potential value to approximately 20 Milliarden Dollar. According to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the realization of the expanded capacity depends on Akamai meeting specific delivery and availability requirements. Both companies retain the right to terminate the agreement under designated conditions.
To power this infrastructure, Akamai plans to invest roughly 5,5 Milliarden Dollar in capacity buildout. The firm is increasing its capital expenditure forecast for 2026 by about 1,7 Milliarden Dollar to pre-purchase necessary components, including memory hardware. Akamai stated that it does not expect any revenue from the contract in the current year, but projects between 150 million and $300 million in revenue beginning in the second half of 2027, scaling to an annualized run rate of approximately 1,7 Milliarden Dollar by the end of 2028.
Equity Options and Industry Precedents
As part of the transaction, Akamai issued Anthropic warrants for non-voting, convertible preferred stock equivalent to 7.7 million common shares, or roughly 5 percent of Akamai’s outstanding stock, at an exercise price of $111.33 per share. Approximately 2 percent of these options vest with the initial agreement, while another 1 percent is unlocked for every subsequent 3 Milliarden Dollar increment of cloud services purchased by Anthropic. Bloomberg reported that this is the first time Akamai has tied equity warrants directly to a cloud services contract.
This structure inverts typical industry arrangements where hardware manufacturers or cloud providers invest directly in the AI firms buying their products. In this case, the customer secures a potential equity stake in the supplier. A comparable transaction occurred last year when AMD partnered with OpenAI under a similar arrangement.
Revenue Projections and Market Impact
The new agreement dwarfs earlier reported figures. Bloomberg had previously reported in May on a smaller preliminary arrangement between Akamai and Anthropic valued at 1,8 Milliarden Dollar, making the new seven-year commitment more than six times larger. Following the disclosure of the finalized deal and its associated financial projections, Akamai’s stock rose by up to 17 percent in after-hours trading, according to The Wall Street Journal.
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