Observed Signal · Sep 25, 2026 · Partnership · Source: CNBC Investing · Impact: 3/5 · Sentiment: Positive
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.
Major infrastructure deal between Akamai and Anthropic signals significant investments in CPU-based AI compute, directly impacting the AdTech ecosystem's reliance on AI infrastructure for agentic advertising and real-time personalization.
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Key Takeaways & Evidence Grounding
- 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.
- Revenue from the deal is expected to start in 2027, reaching a $1.7 billion annual run-rate by end of 2028; shares surged over 16% initially.
- Jim Cramer recommends buying Akamai (trading under 16 times expected earnings) due to AI-driven web traffic growth and the Anthropic deal, while advising pullback buys for Cloudflare (279x) and Fastly (50x).
Connected Companies & Entities
4 Entities mapped“frontier artificial intelligence platform Anthropic for added computing capacity over the next seven years....”
“Cloud provider and cybersecurity company Akamai is the toast of Wall Street on Friday following the signing of an $11.6 billion deal......”
“Cloudflare has emerged as a major beneficiary of that trend. CEO Matthew Prince told Cramer in June that traffic from AI agents had already ...”
“Fastly is also repositioning itself for the AI era, shifting from a traditional content delivery network toward an “edge cloud” platform....”
Ontology Mapping & Concepts
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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.
Anthropic Signs $517 Billion in Compute Agreements
Anthropic has signed compute agreements worth up to $517 billion in the past 11 months, a significant increase from the $180 billion in server rental committed through 2029 last December. This expansion indicates accelerating AI infrastructure investment. A study of patent lawyers found senior lawyers using an AI assistant performed better than peers, while junior gains were not sustained.
Amazon to invest up to $25B more in Anthropic
Amazon agreed to invest up to $25 billion in AI startup Anthropic, adding to a prior $8 billion, as part of an expanded multi-year infrastructure partnership. The deal includes an immediate $5 billion investment and up to $20 billion tied to commercial milestones. Anthropic committed to spend more than $100 billion on Amazon Web Services technologies over the next decade and said it has secured up to 5 gigawatts of capacity for training and deploying its Claude models. Anthropic also plans to bring nearly 1 gigawatt of Trainium2 and Trainium3 capacity online by year-end. The initial tranche values Anthropic at $380 billion, and the company reported annualized revenue above $30 billion.
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