Akamai, Anthropic in $11.6B cloud pact

Akamai Technologies has entered into a large, multi-year cloud services agreement with AI company Anthropic focused on dedicated cloud computing capacity. Under the arrangement, Anthropic has committed to pay approximately $11.6 billion in aggregate to Akamai across two Project Plans. Each Project Plan carries an initial seven-year term, positioning the deal as a long-duration source of infrastructure demand.

The contractual commitments are subject to termination rights and to Akamai meeting specified delivery and service-availability requirements. This structure ties the scale and duration of Anthropic’s financial commitment to the continued performance and reliability of Akamai’s cloud infrastructure over the life of the contract.

Beyond the initial $11.6 billion commitment, the agreement provides for a substantial potential expansion. The overall arrangement could grow by up to an additional $9 billion in contractual value. If fully exercised, the total potential commitment by Anthropic to Akamai would reach about $20 billion, highlighting the scale of Anthropic’s projected cloud computing needs.

This expansion capacity is structured within the same overarching relationship and would further deepen Anthropic’s reliance on Akamai’s infrastructure. The combination of the initial and potential future commitments sets up Akamai for a significant long-term demand pipeline from a single AI customer.

As part of the transaction, Akamai has issued Anthropic a warrant to purchase up to 387,051 Series B non-voting convertible preferred shares. On an as-converted basis, these preferred shares are initially convertible into 7,741,020 shares of Akamai common stock. This represents up to approximately 5% of Akamai’s common stock outstanding.

A portion of this warrant is expected to vest in connection with the initial contractual commitments. Approximately 2% of Akamai’s common stock is expected to vest under the initial $11.6 billion of committed spend. The remaining portion of the warrant provides further equity exposure linked to additional levels of commitment under the broader framework of the deal.

The announcement of the multi-year cloud services agreement and associated warrant was followed by a strong market response. Akamai’s shares rose about 15% in extended trading after the news was released. The share-price move underscores the financial significance investors attach to the scale and duration of Anthropic’s commitment and the potential for further expansion.

Taken together, the long-term revenue visibility from the $11.6 billion commitment, the possibility of up to $20 billion in total contractual value, and the equity-linked structure with Anthropic mark a notable development in Akamai’s positioning within the AI-focused cloud infrastructure market.