Akamai’s latest earnings call revealed a shift that has been building quietly in the background of the cloud market. The company now counts all three leading US hyperscalers as customers of its cloud infrastructure services. CEO Tom Leighton described the milestone carefully, avoiding names, yet the implication was clear. Akamai has turned its sprawling global footprint into a practical alternative for workloads that need to sit as close to users as possible.
Leighton explained that one hyperscaler recently signed a long renewal that reaffirms Akamai as a primary provider for workloads that require extremely low latency. While he dismissed speculation about hyperscaler capacity shortages, he pointed out that each partnership reflects a specific technical need. One uses Akamai’s network for ad logic, another relies on it for fast API coordination, and a third has adopted its managed container service for media workflows. Each example illustrates how the company’s 4,000 plus points of presence create an edge environment that hyperscalers cannot easily replicate.
Revenue from cloud infrastructure services reached 81 million dollars in the third quarter, which represents thirty nine percent growth year over year. Leighton also pointed to a variety of new enterprise customers from sectors that include finance, gaming, supply chain software, and global media. The broad mix suggests that companies are starting to lean on distributed compute for reasons that go beyond content delivery.
Akamai dedicated much of the call to its new AI inference cloud built with Nvidia’s RTX Pro 6000 Blackwell Server Edition GPUs. The platform is currently available in around seventeen cities. CFO Ed McGowan said coverage would expand based on demand. He noted that early interest looks strong enough to influence next year’s growth trajectory for the infrastructure business.
Capital spending reached 224 million dollars for the quarter. McGowan framed the number as a reflection of rising infrastructure needs tied to AI inference workloads. He expects fourth quarter capex to land between 171 and 181 million dollars, which would push full year spending toward the higher end of earlier estimates.
Across the company, total revenue reached 1.055 billion dollars. Security services contributed more than half. Net income rose significantly at 140 million dollars. Akamai, once defined almost entirely by its CDN role, continues to shift deeper into cloud and security. With hyperscalers now relying on its edge capabilities, that transition appears to be gaining momentum.
