Anthropic has committed to spend 11.6 billion dollars (around 10.2 billion euros) on Akamai's cloud infrastructure over the next seven years. It is the biggest deal in Akamai's history - and more than six times the size of the 1.8-billion-dollar deal reported in May.

But the figure comes with an asterisk. According to the document Akamai filed with securities regulators, the commitment only applies if Akamai meets the conditions for delivery and service availability, and both sides can terminate the contract under certain conditions. There's no revenue from it this year. On the investor call, Akamai's management guided to 150 to 300 million dollars in 2027, and only from the second half, with an annual run rate of around 1.7 billion dollars only by the end of 2028.

To build the capacity it needs, Akamai plans to invest around 5.5 billion dollars (around 4.8 billion euros), and is adding another 1.7 billion dollars to this year's capital expenditure for components bought in advance. In other words, the supplier spends first and then waits for the client to pay.

The most interesting part is in the small print. Akamai has issued Anthropic a warrant for non-voting preferred shares that can convert into 7.7 million common shares - up to around 5 percent of the company - at 111.33 dollars a share. Around 2 percent vests with the first payment. Each additional 3 billion dollars of commitment unlocks roughly another 1 percent, which means the deal could grow to around 20 billion dollars (around 17.5 billion euros).

This is a flipped version of the circular deals that have defined the AI race. Usually the supplier invests in the AI company, which then hands the money back as a customer. Here the supplier gives the customer an ownership stake that grows with every dollar spent. AMD used the same formula with OpenAI. When two of the biggest AI labs get shares because they buy, how many of these record deals are real demand, and how many are an accounting merry-go-round?

There's also a technical detail that sets this deal apart. It's about processors (CPUs), not the graphics chips (GPUs) that the whole hype revolves around - a bet on the less glamorous part of the infrastructure, now that AI agents are taking on more and more operational tasks. The market has already voted: Akamai shares jumped as much as 17 percent in after-hours trading.