Anthropic secures $11.6B cloud deal with Akamai, gets 5% warrant
AI firm's infrastructure expansion includes potential $20B total spend and unprecedented equity stake.
1Record-breaking cloud commitment
Anthropic's $11.6 billion, seven-year agreement with Akamai marks one of the largest cloud infrastructure deals in tech history. The contract includes potential expansion to $20 billion with additional $9 billion in services. Akamai's shares surged 17% to $129.60 following the announcement. This builds on a previous $1.8 billion agreement between the companies signed in May 2024, showing accelerating AI infrastructure demands.
2Unprecedented equity component
The deal includes a warrant for 5% of Akamai's common stock (7.7 million shares) at $111.33 per share. Only 2% vests immediately with the $11.6 billion commitment, while the remaining 3% requires contract expansion. This represents Akamai's first-ever equity grant in a cloud deal. The warrant converts to non-voting Series B preferred stock, creating strategic alignment while maintaining governance control for Akamai.
3Capital expenditure surge
Akamai plans $5.5 billion in capital expenditures to support the contract - six times its 2025 total capex. The company increased 2026 spending by $1.7 billion for pre-purchasing components like memory. Despite the massive outlay, Akamai maintains its 2026 revenue guidance. CEO Tom Leighton expects $150-300 million revenue from Anthropic in 2025, growing to $1.7 billion annually by 2028.
4Compute capacity expansion
Akamai will provide Anthropic with CPU access, continuing their partnership that began with the May 2024 agreement. This follows Anthropic's $10 billion deal with Volta in August and its role in Rum Group's $13.7 billion compute contract. The company has also secured chips from Google and SpaceX, plus its first Australian data center lease, showing aggressive global infrastructure buildout.
5Strategic rationale
Akamai CEO Tom Leighton called the equity component "a serious step" that "helps bring the companies together." The structure aligns incentives for long-term collaboration in AI infrastructure scaling. Some Wall Street analysts question whether such circular deals - where companies both buy services and invest in each other - accurately reflect true AI demand versus financial engineering.
6Market context
The deal occurs amid intense competition for AI infrastructure capacity. Anthropic's multiple mega-deals suggest constrained supply for high-performance computing. Akamai's willingness to offer equity indicates the strategic value of securing anchor tenants in the cloud infrastructure race. The contract structure may set precedents for future AI-cloud partnerships involving performance-based equity compensation.
7Financial engineering concerns
Bloomberg reports investor skepticism about circular AI deals where mutual service purchases and investments potentially inflate apparent demand. The Akamai-Anthropic structure links contract expansion to equity vesting, creating complex incentives. Critics argue this makes genuine AI adoption harder to measure, as financial arrangements may obscure actual usage patterns and business needs.
8AI infrastructure arms race
Anthropic's spending spree - now totaling over $35 billion across multiple providers - signals the massive capital requirements for competitive AI development. The Akamai deal's hybrid cash-equity structure reflects creative financing solutions as AI firms strain traditional cloud economics. These partnerships redefine vendor-customer relationships in the AI era, blending service contracts with strategic investments.
Original article: The Next Web — Anthropic secures $11.6B cloud deal with Akamai, gets 5% warrant