Anthropic signs $1.8 billion computing deal with Akamai for AI infrastructure

Anthropic signed a seven-year, $1.8 billion cloud computing deal with Akamai Technologies to meet surging demand for its AI software. Akamai's stock surged approximately 20-25% on the news. Akamai operates infrastructure in 4,300 locations across 700 cities in 130 countries, positioning it for AI inference at the edge. Q1 2026 revenue was $1.07 billion. Akamai's cloud infrastructure business is its fastest-growing segment at 40% YoY, though still the smallest of its three pillars (content delivery, cybersecurity, cloud infrastructure).