Akamai lands $11.6 billion Anthropic deal that could ultimately be worth $20 billion

Anthropic PBC has signed a seven-year, $11.6 billion computing agreement with Akamai Technologies (NASDAQ: AKAM) as the Claude developer keeps adding more data center capacity.

The contract covers computing power and could grow by another $9 billion before the seven years are over. That would push the total value above $20 billion if Anthropic uses the full expansion option.

Akamai stock reacted fast. Shares jumped 17% in Thursday’s late trading to $130. The Anthropic contract also comes on top of more than $2.8 billion in multiyear Cloud Infrastructure Services commitments that Akamai had already announced from other customers this year. Those deals cover infrastructure used to build, launch, and run large AI workloads.

Akamai gives Anthropic a path to own nearly 5% as cloud spending rises

The agreement is not limited to servers and computing capacity. Akamai has also issued Anthropic a warrant tied to a possible equity stake in the company.

The warrant covers non-voting convertible Series B preferred stock equal to 7.7 million Akamai common shares after conversion. If fully exercised, the position would represent about 5% of Akamai’s outstanding common stock. The exercise price is $111.33 per common share.

The first part of that equity package is tied to the deal already announced. Stock equal to roughly 2% of Akamai’s outstanding shares is expected to vest because of Anthropic’s initial $11.6 billion commitment.

The rest depends on how much further Anthropic expands its cloud purchases.

Another roughly 3% stake could vest if Anthropic spends an extra $9 billion with Akamai during the seven-year warrant period. Every additional $3 billion in cloud services bought under terms agreed by both companies would unlock another amount equal to about 1% of Akamai’s outstanding common shares.

Akamai expects to spend about $5.5 billion in capital expenditures to support the original contract. It also expects roughly $1.7 billion in additional capital spending during 2026.

Some of these funds will also go into securing critical hardware ahead of time. Akamai intends to pre-buy parts in the supply chain, such as memory, before the need for increased computing power arises.

The company doesn’t expect the new contract to affect its 2026 revenue guidance. Akamai co-founder and CEO Dr. Tom Leighton said, “Anthropic is advancing the AI revolution and we are thrilled they chose Akamai’s capabilities for building and operating AI infrastructure at scale.”

Tom also said Akamai’s global network and experience working with large companies put it in position to handle AI applications and workloads that require security and large amounts of computing capacity.

Anthropic seeks founder voting control while preparing for a possible IPO

The Akamai deal comes while Anthropic is also changing how control of the company could work ahead of a possible stock market listing.

The Information reported Thursday that Anthropic wants shareholders to approve a structure that would give CEO Dario Amodei and his six co-founders 50.1% of total voting power.

The proposal would create a separate class of shares for the seven founders. That stock would let them vote together on most major corporate matters.

The arrangement would continue as long as at least three of the seven founders keep a required minimum amount of Anthropic shares.

The proposed governance arrangement is similar to the system used by Peter Thiel at Palantir Technologies (NASDAQ: PLTR) where the company founders retain special voting rights to ensure their control despite ownership dilution.

The only major restriction is the fact that such special voting rights will not apply to board election for Anthropic.

At the moment, Anthropic has seven board seats, with one seat currently unoccupied.

It is also contemplating the introduction of yet another special class of stock aimed at giving employee shares the role of breaking corporate vote ties.

The new governance arrangement is introduced as Anthropic prepares for a possible IPO, which can potentially become one of the largest IPOs ever.

The Claude developer could wait until after the U.S. midterm elections in November before moving forward with the offering. Reuters reported earlier this month that the election itself is not expected to have a major effect on the IPO process.

Anthropic already entered the year with an unusually large private-market valuation. The company raised $65 billion in May, giving it a $965 billion post-money valuation.