Anthropic commits $11.6 billion to Akamai for seven years of CPU capacity
The largest contract in Akamai's history bets that the AI build-out still runs on ordinary processors, not only on graphics chips.
Akamai announced on September 24 that Anthropic will pay it $11.6 billion over seven years for distributed cloud capacity aimed at CPU workloads, with an option to add roughly $9 billion more for a potential total near $20 billion. Akamai expects about $5.5 billion in capital spending to serve the commitment and has added roughly $1.7 billion to this year's capital plan to buy components, including memory, in advance. The company also issued Anthropic a warrant for up to about 5 percent of its common stock, 7.7 million shares at an exercise price of $111.33, vesting in tranches as the commitment grows. Chief executive Tom Leighton said Anthropic is advancing the AI revolution and chose Akamai's capabilities for building and operating AI infrastructure at scale; Akamai said the agreement does not change its 2026 revenue guidance.
Scripture for Reflection
“Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.”
Before we make a long commitment of our own, we can gather counsel we actually trust.
