European AI Stocks Rally After Anthropic's $11.6 Billion Akamai Deal
Updated
Updated · Yahoo Finance · Sep 25
European AI Stocks Rally After Anthropic's $11.6 Billion Akamai Deal
3 articles · Updated · Yahoo Finance · Sep 25
Summary
ASML rose 2.3% on Friday, leading gains in European AI-linked stocks after Anthropic signed a computing deal with Akamai worth at least $11.6 billion.
The rally spread across chip and infrastructure names tied to AI buildout, with BE Semiconductor up 1.6%, ASM International 1.03%, Infineon 1.2%, STMicroelectronics 2.01%, and Siemens Energy and Prysmian both 2%.
Akamai will provide Anthropic with CPU access under the agreement, while Anthropic receives warrants to buy Series B shares at $111.33 each, convertible into 7.7 million common shares.
The contract follows a $1.8 billion deal earlier this year and underscores Anthropic's scramble for more computing capacity as demand for its Claude AI software grows.
For Akamai, the deal is its largest ever and will drive about $5.5 billion in related capital spending—more than six times its total 2025 capex—as it pushes beyond content delivery and cybersecurity.
Will Akamai's massive 5.5 billion dollar pivot into AI infrastructure yield durable profits or trigger a catastrophic overcapacity crisis?
Are these aggressive multibillion-dollar computing land grabs driven by genuine software demand or desperate survival tactics among frontier AI companies?
As AI data centers threaten to overwhelm global power grids by 2030, who will ultimately pay the price for this explosive electricity demand?