Akamai's stock surges 27% on $1.8 billion AI cloud contract with Anthropic

At a glance:

• Akamai Technologies disclosed a $1.8 billion, seven-year cloud infrastructure deal with Anthropic, its largest contract ever.
• The stock rose 27% in a single day, the largest rally in the company’s 28-year history.
• The deal represents a shift from Akamai’s legacy CDN business to AI infrastructure, with cloud services revenue growing 40% YoY to $95 million.

The deal

Akamai Technologies disclosed a $1.8 billion, seven-year cloud infrastructure deal with a customer it described only as “a leading frontier model provider.” Bloomberg identified the customer as Anthropic. The stock rose 27 per cent in a single day, the largest rally in the company’s 28-year history. A company that built its business delivering web pages faster than anyone else just became an AI infrastructure provider on the strength of one contract. The deal is the centrepiece of a quarter in which Akamai’s cloud infrastructure services revenue grew 40 per cent year over year to 95 million dollars, while its legacy content delivery business declined 7 per cent. The company is being repriced by investors not for what it has been for two decades but for what one contract suggests it could become. The question is whether a single customer commitment, however large, constitutes a transformation or a concentration risk.

The deal

The 1.8 billion dollar contract is the largest in Akamai’s history. Revenue from the commitment is expected to begin in the fourth quarter of 2026, contributing approximately 20 to 25 million dollars in that period. The seven-year term provides visibility that Akamai’s legacy CDN business, which operates on shorter cycles and faces persistent price compression, has never offered. The deal follows a 200 million dollar, four-year cloud services agreement that Akamai signed in February with another unnamed US technology company, under which the customer will use a multi-thousand NVIDIA Blackwell GPU cluster. Together, the two contracts represent two billion dollars in committed cloud revenue from customers that Akamai did not have two years ago.

The pivot

Akamai was founded in 1998 at MIT to solve the problem of delivering web content without congestion. For two decades, it operated the world’s largest content delivery network, caching and distributing web pages, video streams, and software downloads across more than 4,000 locations in 130 countries. The CDN business made Akamai indispensable to the internet. It also became a commodity.

The customer

The 1.8 billion dollar contract is the largest in Akamai’s history. Revenue from the commitment is expected to begin in the fourth quarter of 2026, contributing approximately 20 to 25 million dollars in that period. The seven-year term provides visibility that Akamai’s legacy CDN business, which operates on shorter cycles and faces persistent price compression, has never offered.

The pivot

Akamai was founded in 1998 at MIT to solve the problem of delivering web content without congestion. For two decades, it operated the world’s largest content delivery network, caching and distributing web pages, video streams, and software downloads across more than 4,000 locations in 130 countries. The CDN business made Akamai indispensable to the internet. It also became a commodity.

The customer

The 1.8 billion dollar contract is the largest in Akamai’s history. Revenue from the commitment is expected to begin in the fourth quarter of 2026, contributing approximately 20 to 25 million dollars in that period. The seven-year term provides visibility that Akamai’s legacy CDN business, which operates on shorter cycles and faces persistent price compression, has never offered.

The pivot

Akamai was founded in 1998 at MIT to solve the problem of delivering web content without congestion. For two decades, it operated the world’s largest content delivery network, caching and distributing web pages, video streams, and software downloads across more than 4,000 locations in 130 countries. The CDN business made Akamai indispensable to the internet. It also became a commodity.

The numbers

Akamai reported first-quarter revenue of 1.074 billion dollars, up 6 per cent year over year. Adjusted earnings per share were 1.61 dollars. Cloud infrastructure services revenue was 95 million dollars, up 40 per cent. Security revenue was 590 million dollars, up 11 per cent. Delivery and other revenue was 389 million dollars, down 7 per cent.

The risk

Akamai reported first-quarter revenue of 1.074 billion dollars, up 6 per cent year over year. Adjusted earnings per share were 1.61 dollars. Cloud infrastructure services revenue was 95 million dollars, up 40 per cent. Security revenue was 590 million dollars, up 11 per cent. Delivery and other revenue was 389 million dollars, down 7 per cent.

The risk

Akamai reported first-quarter revenue of 1.074 billion dollars, up 6 per cent year over year. Adjusted earnings per share were 1.61 dollars. Cloud infrastructure services revenue was 95 million dollars, up 40 per cent. Security revenue was 590 million dollars, up 11 per cent. Delivery and other revenue was 389 million dollars, down 7 per cent.