Anthropic Signs $11.6B Cloud Deal with Akamai, Total Compute Spending Exceeds $517B

On September 25, 2026, Anthropic signed an $11.6 billion cloud deal with Akamai Technologies, which includes a 5% warrant for Akamai's stock. This new agreement ties 2% of Akamai's stock to the current contract, with an additional 3% if the deal expands by up to $9 billion. Following the announcement, Akamai's stock rose by 22% in after-hours trading. Anthropic's total compute spending has now surpassed $517 billion within eleven months, driven by a $45 billion commitment from Nscale last month and an expected $5.5 billion in capital costs by the end of 2026, along with an additional $1.7 billion in spending anticipated before the year concludes. Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, previously warned that the company could face bankruptcy if its financial estimates were off by even a small margin. Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, expressed caution regarding unsustainable spending on compute buildouts, reflecting broader concerns in the industry about the sustainability of such rapid expenditure.