Akamai vs Cloudflare

a16z Leads Series A in Private Network Startup doxxnet

Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) announced it is leading a Series A investment in doxxnet, a startup building a private, parallel internet infrastructure for individuals and AI agents. doxxnet offers a software-defined global network with non-Internet domains, encrypted peer-to-peer communication, and DNS-level threat protection, all without requiring personal information like email or phone. The company is founded by Barrett Lyon, known for Prolexic (acquired by Akamai), BitGravity, and Defense.net. The funding will support the development of its 'Agentic Defined Networking' concept, which allows users and their agents to configure and control the network. The announcement highlights growing privacy needs driven by AI agents that operate with access to user data.

• a16z is leading a Series A investment in doxxnet.
• doxxnet provides a private, parallel internet infrastructure for users and AI agents.
• doxxnet was founded by Barrett Lyon, who previously founded Prolexic, BitGravity, and Defense.net.

Akamai Announces $11.6 Billion Multi-year Agreement with Anthropic to Support Growing Demand

Akamai today announced a significantly expanded relationship with Anthropic for $11.6 billion of contractual commitment over seven years.

AI companies adopt risky 'take-or-pay' contracts for compute

The AI industry is increasingly relying on take-or-pay contracts to secure computing power, a model borrowed from the energy sector. These agreements require AI companies to pay for GPUs, server time, and other inputs regardless of usage, creating significant financial risks. The payments are backed by expected future revenue, but there are concerns about whether AI revenues will materialize in time to meet payment schedules. Off-balance-sheet commitments are growing, with estimates ranging from $1.65 trillion to $3 trillion. Major players like Anthropic and OpenAI have committed billions, while companies like CoreWeave and Alphabet rely heavily on such contracts. Financial analysts and regulators warn that the entire system could collapse if companies fail to secure enough capital. The Bank of International Settlements has highlighted potential systemic risks, particularly through special purpose vehicles. The article notes that major banks and investors are closely monitoring this trend, with experts predicting a 'wave of disputes' as the sector matures.

• Take-or-pay contracts obligate AI companies to pay for compute regardless of usage, similar to energy sector agreements.
• Anthropic committed $750 billion for compute through 2030; OpenAI could spend over $500 billion in the next 10 years.
• Off-balance-sheet commitments in tech sector estimated at $1.65 trillion to $3 trillion.

TypeSafe's Jev Decision Model Explained for Product Managers

The article introduces Jev, a decision model from TypeSafe AI, released in September 2026. Unlike LLMs, Jev returns a decision with a probability based on input text and a question, supporting operations like Noul (yes/no), Choice (one of many options), and Score (rating). It processes up to 32K tokens, with free output tokens and input at $0.042 per million tokens. The author tested it against other models, finding it cost-effective and accurate. Jev is integrated into AskOne for moderation, with rules encoded in prompts to handle abuse and prompt injection. The article notes Cloudflare released similar models (Clef) on October 1, and provides guidance for PMs on quick wins, evaluation, and setup templates.

• TypeSafe AI released Jev in September 2026.
• Jev processes text and returns decisions with probabilities.
• Input cost is $0.042 per million tokens; output tokens are free.

OpenAI introduces GPT-6.1 Sol, cheaper near-Astra model

This week's AI/ML news highlights significant model releases and a trend toward specialized, cost-efficient AI. OpenAI introduced GPT-6.1 Sol, a cost-efficient model for complex coding tasks, scoring 52 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index—one point below GPT-6 Astra—with a 1.05M-token context window and API pricing at $2/M input and $10/M output tokens. Sol excels in agentic coding and computer use, outperforming GPT-6 Sol on benchmarks, and is available in ChatGPT Work and Codex. Notably, OpenAI cancelled GPT-6.1 Astra due to safety concerns. Emerson also launched Claude Sonnet 5.5, claiming faster output and lower costs, while Cloudflare released Clef decision models, NVIDIA unveiled Kumo Tabular, and Google announced Gemini 4 Argon. The overarching theme is the shift toward heterogeneous AI architectures.

• OpenAI released GPT-6.1 Sol on September 29, 2026, with a 1.05M-token context window, $2/M input and $10/M output tokens, and a score of 52 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index.
• GPT-6.1 Sol costs $0.72 per task, about a quarter of GPT-6 Astra's $3.26, and outperforms GPT-6 Sol on DeepSWE 1.1 and AutomationBench, while OpenAI cancelled GPT-6.1 Astra due to safety concerns.
• Anthropic launched Claude Sonnet 5.5 on September 28, 2026, claiming 30% faster output and up to 30% lower cost per task.

Akamai surges after $11.6B Anthropic CPU deal

Akamai Technologies' shares surged up to 16.4% after announcing an $11.6 billion deal with AI company Anthropic for dedicated cloud computing capacity over seven years, marking the largest deal in Akamai's history. The deal focuses on CPU-based infrastructure for agentic AI workloads, with an option to expand to $20 billion. Anthropic will receive a warrant for up to 5% of Akamai's stock, vesting based on spending milestones. Akamai expects $5.5 billion in capital spending plus $1.7 billion for components, and analysts estimate this equates to about 77 megawatts of computing power. Revenue is expected to begin in 2027, with an annual run rate of $1.7 billion by end of 2028. CNBC's Jim Cramer highlighted Akamai as a buy, citing its low valuation (under 16 times expected earnings) and the Anthropic deal, while suggesting a pullback for Cloudflare (279 times earnings) and Fastly (50 times earnings). Akamai is repositioning with edge computing to handle AI workloads closer to users.

• Akamai signed an $11.6 billion deal with Anthropic for dedicated cloud computing capacity over 7 years, the largest in Akamai's history.
• The deal can be expanded to up to $20 billion and includes a warrant granting Anthropic up to 5% of Akamai's stock, vesting based on spending milestones.
• Computing capacity focuses on CPUs for agentic AI, not GPUs; Akamai expects $5.5 billion in capital spending (plus $1.7 billion for components), ~77 MW of power.