Akamai Technologies secured an $11.6 billion, seven-year agreement with AI platform Anthropic for CPU-based computing capacity, with an option to expand to $20 billion.
Shares of Akamai rose as much as 16.4 percent to $128.46 on the announcement before settling around 8 percent higher. The stock has gained 36 percent in 2026, with most appreciation occurring in the first quarter.
Akamai will provide dedicated cloud computing capacity and managed support services for Anthropic. The company expects to spend $5.5 billion in capital to build out infrastructure for the contract. Anthropic has acquired a stake in Akamai as part of the deal.
Analysts see material upside. DA Davidson initiated a Buy rating with a $185 price target, estimating the cloud infrastructure services (CIS) business will generate 30 percent EBIT margins at full revenue run-rate. Morgan Stanley maintains Overweight with a $165 target and projects Akamai's revenue growth accelerating to roughly 16 percent from its prior 12.5 percent model. Piper Sandler holds Overweight at $158, arguing the deal transforms Akamai from a value asset to a hypergrowth play.
Management guidance pegs the Anthropic deal's 2027 revenue contribution at $150 million to $300 million. Using the midpoint, Morgan Stanley's new revenue growth estimate of 16 percent compares to Akamai's 5 percent growth in 2025.
Akamai has logged $14.6 billion in total cloud commitments year-to-date. Piper Sandler projects the CIS segment will overtake the Security business by fourth quarter 2028 at current momentum, signaling an accelerating shift toward higher-margin compute services.
