Anthropic strikes $11.6B deal with Akamai for AI computing infrastructure

Akamai Technologies just landed the kind of contract that transforms a company’s identity. The content delivery network veteran announced a $11.6 billion, seven-year commitment with Anthropic, the maker of Claude, to support the AI firm’s growing CPU-based workloads on Akamai’s distributed cloud infrastructure. The deal includes potential add-on commitments of up to $9 billion, which would push the total contract value to roughly $20 billion. From CDN to AI backbone This expanded agreement builds on a relationship that was already turning heads. Back in May 2026, Bloomberg identified Anthropic as the mystery customer behind Akamai’s then-record $1.8 billion cloud infrastructure services deal. When that news broke, Akamai’s stock surged 27% in a single trading session. To further cement the partnership, Akamai is issuing warrants to Anthropic for up to approximately 5% of its common stock on an as-converted basis, priced at $111.33 per share. The warrants vest in portions tied to the size of Anthropic’s commitments, a structure that essentially turns Anthropic into a stakeholder in Akamai’s success. Why CPUs, not GPUs Anthropic’s deal with Akamai specifically targets CPU-based AI wo...