Anthropic 与 Akamai 达成云服务协议：七年支付116亿美元，规模或增至约200亿美元

Anthropic 将在七年内向 Akamai 的云基础设施投入116亿美元，Akamai 周四表示。这一金额超过彭博社今年5月报道的双方18亿美元交易规模六倍以上。不过，这项承诺并非不可撤销：根据 Akamai 的证券申报文件，协议取决于 Akamai 是否满足特定交付和服务可用性要求，且任何一方均可在特定条件下终止协议。

这笔交易是 Akamai 历史上规模最大的交易，也延续了 Anthropic 的大举采购算力趋势。它还代表着对 AI 基础设施中一个较少被热炒领域的押注：CPU。随着 AI Agent 承担更多任务，对 CPU——可处理运行代码、网页浏览等工作的通用芯片——的需求正在增长，但 Akamai 没有说明 Anthropic 将如何使用这些 CPU。

Akamai 今年不会从该交易中确认收入。在周四的投资者电话会议上，公司高管表示，预计将从2027年下半年开始确认1.5亿至3亿美元收入，到2028年底，收入将达到约17亿美元的年化水平。

为建设相关产能，Akamai 预计将投入约55亿美元。该公司还将今年的资本支出增加约17亿美元，以提前采购内存等组件。

作为交易的一部分，Akamai 向 Anthropic 发放了一份认股权证，即以固定价格购买股票的权利，标的为可转换为770万股普通股的无投票权优先股，按每股111.33美元计算，最多约相当于公司已发行股票的5%。预计约2%的股份将在 Anthropic 根据协议完成首次付款后归属，即可供其获得。其余部分与 Anthropic 增加支出挂钩：其每额外承诺向 Akamai 云服务支付30亿美元，便可解锁约1%的额外股份。因此，这笔交易的规模最多可能增加90亿美元，总额达到约200亿美元。

据彭博社报道，这是 Akamai 首次在云服务交易中附带认股权证，该合同也是公司历史上规模最大的合同。

这份认股权证颠倒了循环式 AI 交易中更常见的模式：芯片制造商和云服务提供商等供应商，通常会直接投资于购买其产品的 AI 实验室。在本案中，供应商反而向客户提供了潜在持股权，而且该持股比例会随着 Anthropic 在 Akamai 的支出增长而增加。AMD 去年与 OpenAI 采用了类似结构，将认股权证与芯片采购里程碑挂钩。

Anthropic 对此类安排并不陌生。Amazon、Google、Microsoft 和 AMD都曾在向 Anthropic 销售芯片或云容量的同时，对该公司进行投资或承诺投资。Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei 去年12月向《纽约时报》表示，Anthropic 参与这类交易的规模并不像“其他一些参与者”那么大。

据《华尔街日报》报道，Akamai 股价周四在盘后交易中一度上涨17%。

Anthropic will spend $11.6 billion over seven years on Akamai’s cloud infrastructure, Akamai said Thursday. That’s more than six times the size of a $1.8 billion deal between the two companies that Bloomberg reported in May. The commitment isn’t ironclad; according to Akamai’s securities filing, it depends on Akamai meeting certain delivery and service-availability requirements, and either company can end the agreement under certain conditions.

The deal is the largest in Akamai’s history and continues Anthropic’s compute gobbling-streak. It also represents a bet on a less-hyped corner of AI infrastructure: CPUs. Demand for CPUs, the general-purpose chips that handle work like running code and browsing the web, has grown as AI agents take on more tasks, though Akamai didn’t say what Anthropic will use them for.

Akamai won’t see revenue from the deal this year. On an investor call Thursday, executives said they expect $150 million to $300 million in 2027, starting in the second half, with revenue reaching an annual pace of about $1.7 billion by the end of 2028.

To build out the capacity, Akamai expects to spend about $5.5 billion. It is also adding about $1.7 billion to this year’s capital spending to buy components such as memory in advance.

As part of the deal, Akamai issued Anthropic a warrant, essentially the right to buy shares at a set price, for nonvoting preferred stock convertible into 7.7 million common shares, or up to about 5% of the company’s outstanding stock, at $111.33 a share. About 2% is expected to vest, or become available to Anthropic once it makes its first payment under the deal. The rest is tied to Anthropic spending more. Each additional $3 billion it commits to Akamai’s cloud services unlocks roughly another 1%, so the deal could grow by as much as $9 billion, to about $20 billion in total.

It’s the first time Akamai has attached a warrant to a cloud deal, and the contract is the largest in company history, Bloomberg reported.

The warrant flips the more common pattern in circular AI deals, in which suppliers — chipmakers and cloud providers — invest directly in the AI labs that buy their products. Here, the supplier is instead giving its customer a potential stake, one that grows as Anthropic’s spending with Akamai does. AMD used a similar structure with OpenAI last year, tying warrants to chip-purchase milestones.

Anthropic is no stranger to such arrangements. Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and AMD have all invested or agreed to invest in the company while selling it chips or cloud capacity. CEO Dario Amodei told The New York Times last December that Anthropic does not participate in these deals at the “same scale as some other players.”

Akamai shares rose as much as 17% in after-hours trading on Thursday, The Wall Street Journal reported.