Anthropic signs $11.6 billion cloud deal with Akamai, pushing its compute spending past $500 billion in under a year
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Anthropic has entered into a significant seven-year, $11.6 billion cloud computing agreement with Akamai Technologies, marking another major step in its aggressive infrastructure expansion. As part of the deal, Anthropic receives stock warrants for up to 5 percent of Akamai's shares, contingent on contract performance and potential expansion. This latest commitment pushes Anthropic's total compute spending past $500 billion within just eleven months, following a separate $45 billion capacity deal with Nscale announced last month. The market reacted positively to the news, with Akamai's stock surging 22 percent after hours as the company anticipates substantial capital costs. Despite these massive investments, the sustainability of such rapid spending remains highly questionable given the reliance on projected future revenues. Both Anthropic and OpenAI have faced warnings from their respective CEOs regarding the financial risks associated with overestimating demand or underestimating costs. CEO Dario Amodei previously cautioned that even minor miscalculations could lead to bankruptcy, while Sam Altman has also urged caution regarding unsustainable buildout expenditures.
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