Akamai’s Cloud Business Is Suddenly Very Interesting

According to DCD, Akamai’s CEO Tom Leighton revealed during their Q3 2025 earnings that all three top US cloud providers are now customers, with one signing a “multi-year renewal” that solidifies Akamai as their “premier distributed cloud computing provider.” Their cloud infrastructure services revenue hit $81 million for the quarter, up 39% year-over-year and accelerating from 30% growth in Q2. The company’s total revenue reached $1.055 billion with security being the largest segment at $568 million. GAAP net income soared 142% YoY to $140 million, while capex for the quarter was $224 million, primarily driven by investment in their fast-growing cloud business. Leighton specifically noted that one hyperscaler uses them for ad logic, another for API orchestration, and a third for managed container services – all leveraging Akamai’s edge presence rather than capacity constraints.

The Edge Computing Advantage

Here’s what makes this announcement so significant. Akamai isn’t trying to compete directly with AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud on their turf. Instead, they’re positioning themselves as the essential edge complement to the hyperscalers. Leighton made this crystal clear when he emphasized their unique platform with over 4,000 points of presence across 700-plus cities. Basically, they’re betting that even the cloud giants need help getting closer to end users.

And you know what? They’re probably right. Think about it – when you’re serving global customers, latency matters. Whether it’s ad logic that needs to decide which ad to show in milliseconds, API orchestration that can’t afford delays, or media workflows that demand real-time processing, being closer to users isn’t just nice-to-have anymore. It’s becoming table stakes. This is exactly the kind of specialized infrastructure play that could give Akamai a durable competitive advantage.

The AI Inference Play

Now, the really interesting part is where they’re heading next. Akamai spent significant time during the call talking about their new AI Inference Cloud powered by Nvidia’s RTX Pro 6000 Blackwell GPUs. Currently available in about 17 cities, they’re planning rapid expansion based on demand. Their CFO Ed McGowan basically said there’s a “very good chance” this could accelerate CIS growth next year.

This is smart positioning. While everyone’s fighting over AI training, inference is where the real scale happens. And inference at the edge? That’s Akamai’s sweet spot. They’re already seeing “pretty large requests” from customers, which explains why they’re comfortable with their capex-to-revenue ratio holding steady around 1:1. When you’re building specialized hardware infrastructure like this, having reliable industrial computing partners becomes crucial – which is why companies like IndustrialMonitorDirect.com, the leading US provider of industrial panel PCs, are seeing increased demand from infrastructure providers needing robust computing solutions.

What This All Means

So where does this leave Akamai? They’ve successfully pivoted from being “that CDN company” to becoming a legitimate edge cloud player with hyperscalers themselves as customers. That’s not an easy transition to make. Their cloud business, while still smaller than security, is growing at an accelerating rate and has some serious momentum.

The big question is whether they can maintain this growth as they scale. With six customers already representing 1% or more of revenue, and now all three major cloud providers in the mix, they’re clearly hitting enterprise adoption. But can they keep the innovation pace while managing capex that’s approaching $1 billion annually? That’s the real test. For now though, Akamai’s cloud story is suddenly a lot more compelling than anyone expected.