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Anthropic will spend $11.6B on Akamai cloud services over seven years. The deal could expand to about $20B and includes an option to buy Akamai shares.
In short: Anthropic says it will spend $11.6 billion over seven years on Akamai’s cloud services, and Akamai is also giving Anthropic an option to buy up to about 5% of Akamai stock.
Anthropic, an AI company, has agreed to use Akamai’s cloud infrastructure for a large amount of computing work. Cloud infrastructure is basically rented computers and storage in faraway data centers (like paying for electricity and machines you do not own).
Akamai said the total spending is expected to be $11.6 billion over seven years. The agreement is not unconditional. Akamai’s filings say the deal depends on Akamai meeting certain service and availability requirements, and either company can end it under certain conditions.
Akamai executives said they do not expect revenue from the deal this year. They expect $150 million to $300 million in 2027, starting in the second half, and an annual pace of about $1.7 billion by the end of 2028. Akamai also said it expects to spend about $5.5 billion to build enough capacity, and it is adding about $1.7 billion to this year’s capital spending to buy parts like memory early.
A notable part of the deal is that Anthropic is focusing on CPUs, which are general-purpose computer chips (the all around “workhorse” chips used in most computers). Akamai did not say exactly what Anthropic will use them for.
Akamai is also giving Anthropic a warrant, which is the right to buy shares later at a set price (like a coupon to buy stock at a fixed rate). If Anthropic spends more, it can unlock more of that stock option, up to about 5% of Akamai. The cloud deal itself could also grow to about $20 billion in total.
AI systems need huge amounts of computing power to run and improve, and this deal shows just how expensive that can be. It also shows that cloud providers and AI companies are using more creative business arrangements, including sharing potential ownership, to secure long-term partnerships.
Source: TechCrunch AI
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