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F. Leighton
F. Leighton AKAM
Co-Founder, Chief Executive Officer, President & Director, Akamai Technologies, Inc
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Akamai CEO Leighton Calls Anthropic an Ideal Partner

📅 Sep 28, 2026 Bloomberg Television 8 MIN 4640 VIEWS 22 SEGMENTS · 2 SPEAKERS
Akamai Technologies co-founder and CEO Tom Leighton discusses the company’s seven-year, $12 billion AI computing supply agreement with Anthropic and its broader AI strategy with Dani Burger on "Bloomberg Open Interest." -------- More on Bloomberg Television and Markets Like this video? Subscribe and turn on notifications so you don't miss any videos from Bloomberg Markets & Finance: https://tinyurl.com/ysu5b8a9 Visit http://www.bloomberg.com for business news & analysis, up-to-the-minute market data, features, profiles and more. Connect with Bloomberg Television on: X:   / bloomber...

What F. Leighton said

Written from the verified transcript and checked against it. Every figure links to the moment it was said.

Akamai CEO Tom Leighton discussed the company's partnership with Anthropic, calling it an ideal fit due to Akamai's edge network bringing AI compute closer to users. He addressed concentration risk by noting 14.4 billion in long-term commitments signed this year, expected to generate $2.2 billion in annual revenue once fully ramped by early 2028. Leighton highlighted Akamai's strong cash position of over $4 billion, eliminating the need for borrowing, and noted that even a one or two point rate increase would not significantly impact their profitable deals. He emphasized the advantage of Akamai's distributed model with 4,000 points of presence in 700 cities, avoiding the community pushback and permitting issues faced by larger data centers. On AI safety, Leighton stressed the need for guardrails and cyber defenses, mentioning Akamai's agent sandbox and security capabilities, and saw a role for government in advocating for standards.

Key takeaways

  1. Akamai has signed $14.4 billion in long-term commitments this year, expected to generate $2.2 billion in annual revenue by early 2028.
  2. Akamai holds over $4 billion in cash, so no borrowing is needed despite capex investments.
  3. Akamai's 4,000 points of presence in 700 cities avoid the community pushback and permitting issues of large data centers.
  4. Leighton sees AI safety as a real challenge, requiring guardrails and cyber defenses, with Akamai offering agent sandbox and security.
  5. A one or two point rate increase would not significantly impact Akamai's profitable deals.

Numbers and commitments

FigureWhat it refers toTypeAt
$14.4 billion long-term commitments signed this year commitment 0:58
$2.2 billion annual revenue run rate when fully ramped guidance 0:58
early 2028 timeline for full revenue generation from all deals timeline 1:45
$4 billion cash on hand metric 1:45
Q4 quarter when revenue from earlier deals starts timeline 1:45
4,000 points of presence metric 4:09
700 cities with points of presence metric 3:19
10, 20 megawatts typical size of a large point of presence metric 3:19

Chapters

  1. 0:00Anthropic partnership rationale
  2. 0:58Concentration risk and commitments
  3. 1:45Cash position and capex timing
  4. 2:54Interest rate sensitivity
  5. 3:19Edge network advantages
  6. 4:09Community pushback avoidance
  7. 5:00Industry challenges and commoditization
  8. 6:08AI safety and guardrails
  9. 7:58Government role in cybersecurity

Questions asked in this interview

11
  1. 0:00So why partner with Anthropic in this?
  2. 0:40What would you say to those who are concerned, as many are in this industry, just about concentration risk?
  3. 1:32Does that mean you need more deals like Anthropic to make sure that you can go ahead?
  4. 2:19Are you seeing any sorts of pings of that where it could be more difficult to tap debt markets for you and your peers?
  5. 3:13When do you start to get concerned about the macro environment?
  6. 3:53Are you still seeing some of the same community pushback?
  7. 4:41Do you think that there are some projects in this industry that we're seriously going to have to rethink because of that pushback?
  8. 5:08Is that a risk down the road?
  9. 5:49Are you an optimist when it comes to this that we can solve the AI safety question?
  10. 6:55So does there need to be something more cohesive among the entirety of the industry?
  11. 7:58Do you think government has a role to play, Tom?
Interviewer 0:00 ↗
Great to see you this morning fresh off of last week's deal. First, why was Anthropic the right partner for this? People might think of Akamai, your edge model that is bringing AI modeling and capabilities closer to the end user. That's something that a Meta, for example, does and is much more aligned with your network. So why partner with Anthropic in this?
F. Leighton 0:21 ↗
Oh, Anthropic's a great company, clearly a leader in the development of AI and really an ideal partner for Akamai. A lot of the uses of AI benefit greatly from proximity to the user and proximity to the data, and that's exactly what Akamai provides.
Interviewer 0:40 ↗
With this, you build up quite a bit of partnership dependency, some might say, on Anthropic. So they're your customer. They're now your warrant holder. They're effectively one of your largest CapEx sources. What would you say to those who are concerned, as many are in this industry, just about concentration risk?
F. Leighton 0:58 ↗
Yes. So they will become a large customer. I can't think of really a better company to be a large customer. But really, you know, we've signed many deals so far this year with other leading enterprises, and collectively now 14.4 billion in long-term commits we've signed already this year. And when you look at the run rate when it's fully on board and ramped up, that'll be $2.2 billion a year of revenue, and very profitable revenue, accretive to our margins. So we're pretty excited about Akamai's prospects.
Interviewer 1:32 ↗
What about in the meantime, though, sort of the gap to bringing that revenue in before it happens? You need to spend, obviously, before the cash flows in. Does that mean you need more deals like Anthropic to make sure that you can go ahead?
F. Leighton 1:45 ↗
We're in a great position with cash, well over $4 billion on hand today. And we have the ability if we need to, with the ability to borrow money if we needed to. Right now, we don't. We're in a very good position. And you're right. You do invest in the CapEx in Colo leading into a deal. Takes about six to nine months to generate the revenue. But already in Q4, we're going to start seeing the benefit of the revenue from the deals we did earlier this year. And as you look at all the deals, they'll be well into full revenue generating mode by early 2028.
Interviewer 2:19 ↗
Tom, you mentioned borrowing. It's something that you don't need to do now, but many in this universe are tapping debt markets quite heavily, hyperscalers among them. There has been this question as to whether cost of capital are going to significantly change just given the macro environment, given where rates are headed. I wonder how you see it. Is there a scenario where rates go high enough that the Fed hikes high enough that borrowing does become more difficult? Are you seeing any sorts of pings of that where it could be more difficult to tap debt markets for you and your peers?
F. Leighton 2:54 ↗
Well, that is the benefit of having a lot of capital in the bank so that we're not going to need to go out and do that right away. Yeah. Sure. Rates could go up in the future, but you know, the nature of the deals that we're doing, they're so profitable that, you know, if rates increased a point or two would not be a significant impact to Akamai.
Interviewer 3:13 ↗
So what is a significant impact? When do you start to get concerned about the macro environment?
F. Leighton 3:19 ↗
Well, you're always concerned about it, but I think we're in a really good position with the deals that we've locked down, the data center space we've locked down, and the server supply, you know, the parts supply, that we're in a very good position. Also, you know, we work with a data center, pretty much all the data center companies. We're in 700 cities around the world, and we're not trying to, you know, build these gigawatt data centers. You know, a large point of presence for us would maybe be 10, 20 megawatts. So we're in a really good position to get the capacity and grow the business.
Interviewer 3:53 ↗
How does that make a difference in this environment where we are facing a lot of pushback? A lot of local communities don't want the huge data centers around them. Does it help to have the edge networks that are a bit smaller, Tom? Are you still seeing some of the same community pushback?

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Cite this transcript

APA, MLA, BibTeX
APA

Leighton, F. (2026, September 28). Akamai CEO Leighton Calls Anthropic an Ideal Partner [Interview transcript]. Bloomberg Television. CEOInterviews.AI. https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/2944579/

MLA

F. Leighton. "Akamai CEO Leighton Calls Anthropic an Ideal Partner." Bloomberg Television, 28 Sep. 2026. Transcript, CEOInterviews.AI, https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/2944579/.

BibTeX 
@misc{leighton2026_2944579,
  author       = {F. Leighton},
  title        = {Akamai CEO Leighton Calls Anthropic an Ideal Partner},
  howpublished = {Interview transcript, Bloomberg Television. CEOInterviews.AI},
  year         = {2026},
  month        = {sep},
  url          = {https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/2944579/},
  note         = {Speaker-attributed transcript with timestamps}
}