Anthropic is accelerating its expansion of computing power reserves.

On September 24, according to Bloomberg, artificial intelligence developer Anthropic signed a seven-year computing contract worth $11.6 billion with Akamai, marking another massive deal in the AI computing infrastructure sector.

This transaction set a record as the largest order in Akamai's corporate history. Under the agreement, Akamai will provide central processing unit (CPU) computing power to Anthropic to support its growing artificial intelligence service demands.

As a key component of the deal, Akamai issued warrants to Anthropic, allowing it to purchase Series B shares convertible into common stock. This cloud service cooperation model, which includes equity bundling, has directly triggered further attention on Wall Street regarding "circular AI deals" in the tech industry.

This partnership will profoundly reshape Akamai's business structure. Alongside expectations of massive capital expenditures, the company's cloud computing business revenue is expected to surge in the coming years and may soon surpass its traditional cybersecurity and content delivery businesses.

Record-Breaking Order Reshapes Akamai's Business Landscape

This multi-billion-dollar contract has had a direct impact on Akamai's financial planning.

According to Bloomberg, Akamai expects capital expenditures related to the Anthropic agreement to total approximately $5.5 billion, more than six times its total spending for the full year of 2025.

Akamai CEO Tom Leighton said in an interview that most of the capital expenditure planned to fulfill this contract will be used for hardware such as servers, chips, and networking equipment, and will primarily occur next year.

Despite the significant increase in capital expenditures, the expected returns are substantial. Akamai anticipates revenue from the Anthropic business to reach $150 million to $300 million next year.

Tom Leighton pointed out that by 2028, annual run-rate revenue from this business will reach approximately $1.7 billion. He emphasized that the company's cloud business is growing at an extremely rapid pace, and at this rate, revenue related to cloud contracts may "soon" surpass other traditional business segments.

Equity Tie-Up Draws Wall Street Scrutiny

This contract includes special equity arrangements.

The warrants Akamai issued to Anthropic grant the latter the right to purchase Series B shares at $111.33 per share, which are convertible into 7.7 million common shares.

Akamai stated that a portion of the warrants, representing approximately 2% of its common stock, will vest as the computing agreement is expected to begin in the second half of next year, with the remainder gradually unlocking over the seven-year contract period.

This has raised concerns among some Wall Street investors. The market remains wary of so-called "circular AI deals," where cloud service providers, hardware companies, and AI startups purchase each other's products while making direct mutual investments, making it more difficult to quantify genuine market demand for AI.

In response, Tom Leighton said this is the first time Akamai has agreed to such a warrant arrangement in a cloud deal with a customer. He considers it a significant move and reasonable under the current circumstances, helping to closely tie the two companies together.

Anthropic's Computing Demand Continues to Swell

This $11.6 billion contract builds on the $1.8 billion computing agreement the two companies reached earlier this year.

In recent months, as a large number of customers have flocked to Anthropic's Claude software to streamline programming and other task processes, market demand for the software has surged dramatically.

To meet this growing demand, the AI developer has launched a major computing procurement drive, seeking chips from companies ranging from Google to SpaceX, in addition to Akamai.

The CPU involved in the agreement, as a general-purpose chip, is seeing a resurgence in demand in data centers supporting AI services.