Anthropic will pay Akamai Technologies AKAM at least $11.6 billion to use its cloud infrastructure and software for over seven years in an expansion of the partnership between the two companies.
The deal provides for a potential $9 billion expansion, representing a total potential commitment of around $20 billion, Akamai said Thursday. The new commitment adds to upwards of $2.8 billion in existing multi-year cloud commitments across its customer base announced this year.
As part of the deal, Akamai issued Anthropic a warrant to purchase around 7.7 million shares of the company’s non-voting convertible Series B preferred stock on an as-converted basis, representing around 5% of its outstanding shares, at a price of $111.33 a share.
Part of the warrant, representing around 2% of Akamai’s outstanding shares, is expected to vest in connection with the Thursday announcement. Another 1% of Akamai shares would vest with each $3 billion cloud-services purchase Anthropic makes on top of the initial $11.6 billion.
Shares of Akamai surged 22%, to $134.88, in after-hours trading Thursday.
“Anthropic is advancing the AI revolution and we are thrilled they chose Akamai’s capabilities for building and operating AI infrastructure at scale,” Akamai Chief Executive Tom Leighton said Thursday. The company said the new commitment would add around $1.7 billion to its capital expenditures this year but won’t change its full-year revenue guidance.

The Swiss stock market closed slightly higher on Thursday. The Swiss National Bank’s interest rate decision was in line with expectations and therefore had no impact on the market. The SNB left its key interest rate at 0.00 percent. The SMI gave up 0.1 percent to 13,906 points. The SMI received support from the heavyweights Nestlé (+1.1%) and Novartis (+1.2%). The third heavyweight, Roche, closed firmly in positive territory. Logitech lost 6.1 percent on no particular news. Partners Group dropped 5.4 percent. Shares of insurers Swiss Life, Swiss Re, and Zurich declined by as much as 1.7 percent. UBS’s share price (-0.6%) continued to be weighed down by the Council of States’ decision the previous day to tighten capital adequacy requirements.

Europe
European stock markets edged lower on Thursday. The Stoxx Europe 600 index dropped 0.55% to 646.43 points. In Paris, the CAC 40 and the SBF 120 fell by 0.5% and 0.6%, respectively. The DAX 40 in Frankfurt declined by 0.5%, while the FTSE 100 ended at 0.2% lower in London. LVMH (+0.05%): The Arnault family-owned group, which holds a majority stake in luxury giant LVMH (owner of L'Agefi), announced Wednesday that it plans to simplify its ownership structure through several merger-by-absorption transactions. SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC (-1.2%): The electrical equipment manufacturer confirmed Thursday its intention to acquire Shelly Group, a provider of home automation and building energy management solutions, as part of a tender offer valuing the company at 1.2 billion euros. TRIGANO (-1.65%): The recreational vehicle manufacturer reported on Wednesday an increase in revenue for the 2025–2026 fiscal year ending in late August, as strong performance in certain European markets offset the decline in sales in France.

United States
On Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.3%, or about 162 points. Other indexes ended little changed, with the S&P 500 down a fraction of a percent and Nasdaq Composite inching higher. Oracle ORCL dropped 3.5%. The company sent a force majeure notice to the developer of the Project Jupiter campus, its data center project in New Mexico. Although Oracle ORCL doesn’t plan to exit its deal as the main tenant, the company is seeking the right to hold off payments if it doesn’t come online as scheduled in 2028, Bloomberg reported. Shares of Bloom Energy BE, the manufacturer of fuel cells for data centers, dropped 3.1%. Meta Platforms META rose 4.5% after the Facebook owner showed off several new pairs of smart glasses and a hand-held device allowing users to talk to its Muse artificial-intelligence agent. BlackBerry BB gained 4.2%. The company reported fiscal second-quarter earnings that surpassed Wall Street’s estimates. BlackBerry attributed the performance to strong growth in its car software business. MGM Resorts International MGM tumbled 11% after media mogul Barry Diller’s People Inc. withdrew its bid for the hotel and casino operator. GoDaddy GDDY rose 4.6%. The website builder received an acquisition offer from software company Gen Digital, the Financial Times reported Thursday. Shares of Gen Digital GEN tumbled 12%.

Asia
Asian stocks were mixed on Friday. In Tokyo, the Topix is up 1.4 percent. Hong Kong is down significantly, by 1.7 percent. Trading is once again suspended in Seoul due to the Harvest Festival, and markets are also closed on the Chinese mainland and in Taiwan. In Tokyo, tech stocks such as Advantest and Kioxia gained roughly 2 percent, while Lasertec is advancing just under 3 percent. SoftBank Group, on the other hand, is under pressure. The tech investor’s stock dropped 3.7 percent.

Bonds
U.S. government debt yields keep touching highs unseen since the early 2000s, and oil prices hovered well above $100 a barrel. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note climbed 0.050 percentage point to a high of 5.163%, a peak last reached in 2007. The yield on the 30-year bond rose 0.059 percentage point to 5.460%, its highest level in more than two decades. The yield on the two-year Treasury note edged 0.002 percentage point to 4.895%. Odds of a rate hike next month jumped to around 70% from 55% two days earlier, according to the CME FedWatch tool.

Analysis
Berenberg lowers Burckhardt Compression to CHF 620 (658) - Buy
Deutsche Bank raises Tecan to CHF 198 (176) - Hold
Vontobel increases Lem to CHF 800 (600) - Buy

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