Akamai Gives Anthropic a Warrant to Win an $11.6B Deal

Akamai signed a $11.6 billion, seven-year deal to supply cloud computing capacity to Anthropic, the companies announced Sept. 24, and structured it less like a vendor contract and more like a growth investment: Akamai handed Anthropic a warrant for shares representing close to 5% of its common stock.

The agreement, detailed in an Akamai press release and in an exhibit Akamai filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, covers CPU-based workloads running across Akamai's distributed network. It expands an existing relationship: Anthropic committed $1.8 billion to Akamai in May, a fraction of Tuesday's number.

The stock's reaction was immediate. Akamai shares rose about 22% after hours, from $110.41 to $134.64, according to SiliconANGLE's report on the trading move. That close sits above the warrant's $111.33 exercise price, which means Anthropic's stake was already worth more than its strike before a single share had vested.

How the warrant actually vests

The filing lays out a tranched structure rather than a single grant. About 2% of Akamai's outstanding stock vests immediately, tied to the $11.6 billion base commitment. The remaining roughly 3% vests in increments of about 1 percentage point for every additional $3 billion Anthropic spends, up to $9 billion more in optional purchases, for a potential total commitment near $20 billion.

Trigger	Equity that vests
$11.6 billion base commitment	~2% of Akamai stock
Each additional $3 billion spent	~1% more, up to 3 additional points
Full $9 billion expansion exercised	~5% total (warrant cap)

That structure means Akamai's upside is conditional on Anthropic actually spending the money, not just signing the contract, and Anthropic's equity stake grows only if it keeps buying. Akamai said the deal will not change its 2026 revenue guidance, but it raised planned 2026 capital expenditures by about $1.7 billion to cover supply-chain and memory pre-purchases, on top of roughly $5.5 billion in capex tied directly to the commitment.

A small business becoming a load-bearing one

Akamai's Cloud Infrastructure Services unit, the group that will serve Anthropic's workloads, generated $99 million in revenue in the second quarter of 2026, up 39% from a year earlier, a fraction of Akamai's overall business. Co-founder and Chief Executive Tom Leighton said Anthropic "chose Akamai's capabilities for building and operating AI infrastructure at scale," a framing that puts a formerly minor product line at the center of the company's growth story.

Equity-linked infrastructure deals are becoming a pattern rather than an exception. Nvidia has taken a stake structured around a $3 billion commitment to Lancium for power infrastructure, and SoftBank's roughly $100 billion Stargate venture ties OpenAI and Oracle together through a similar mix of contracted spending and ownership. What none of these disclosures answer is what Akamai gave up in return for issuing the warrant below market price, or whether Akamai's board considered a cash-only contract at a steeper discount instead.

The next event to watch is not another announcement. It is whether Anthropic's compute spending with Akamai crosses the first $3 billion expansion threshold, which would trigger the next tranche of vesting and confirm the contract is a real, growing revenue stream rather than a headline number with an option attached.

The deal follows a broader pattern of infrastructure providers taking equity positions in the AI labs they serve, a dynamic The Terminal has also tracked in Crusoe's $3.9 billion Series F and in Anthropic's own model research.