Compute
← Earnings Calls
01
02
03
04 05 06
Tone
AI
Capex
A1 A2 A3
AKAM
FY2025 Q3
Improving
Akamai Technologies, Inc. earnings call
Buzzberg read
All top three U.S.
Akamai reported strong Q3 2025 results, with revenue and EPS beating expectations, driven by accelerating growth in Cloud Infrastructure Services (39% YoY) and high-growth security products. Management launched Akamai Inference Cloud with NVIDIA, signaling a major push into edge AI inference, and expressed confidence in accelerating CIS growth next year. Q3 revenue was $1.055B, up 5% YoY, with non-GAAP EPS of $1.86, up 17% YoY.
Buzzberg read All top three U.S. Akamai reported strong Q3 2025 results, with revenue and EPS beating expectations, driven by accelerating growth in Cloud Infrastructure Services (39% YoY) and high-growth security products. Management launched Akamai Inference Cloud with NVIDIA, signaling a major push into edge AI inference, and expressed confidence in accelerating CIS growth next year. Q3 revenue was $1.055B, up 5% YoY, with non-GAAP EPS of $1.86, up 17% YoY. Read full analysisCollapse analysis
Akamai reported strong Q3 2025 results, with revenue and EPS beating expectations, driven by accelerating growth in Cloud Infrastructure Services (39% YoY) and high-growth security products. Management launched Akamai Inference Cloud with NVIDIA, signaling a major push into edge AI inference, and expressed confidence in accelerating CIS growth next year. Q3 revenue was $1.055B, up 5% YoY, with non-GAAP EPS of $1.86, up 17% YoY.
- CIS revenue grew 39% YoY, accelerating from 30% last quarter, and all top 3 US hyperscalers are now customers.
- Launched Akamai Inference Cloud with NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs, with initial customers including Harmonic and Monks.
- API security and Zero Trust products grew 35% YoY, with API security expected to exit 2025 at a ~$100M run rate.
CIS Revenue81Reported
DELIVERY Revenue306Reported
SECURITY Revenue568Reported
Revenue$1.0546BReported
6 grounded callouts
What matters now
The highest-signal changes from the call.
Growth
CIS revenue growth accelerated to 39% year-over-year
AI
Akamai Inference Cloud launched with NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs
Show 3 more callouts
Security
API security run rate expected to reach ~$100 million
Guidance
Management sees possible CIS growth acceleration next year
AI
AI inference expected to boost delivery traffic over time
Reported period
Actuals
| Metric | Reported | Change |
|---|---|---|
| CIS Revenue | 81 | Reported |
| DELIVERY Revenue | 306 | Reported |
| SECURITY Revenue | 568 | Reported |
| Revenue | $1.0546B | Reported |
| EPS | $1.86 | Reported |
| Gross margin | 59.27% | Reported |
Forward-looking
Forward guidance
| Metric | Period | Range | Midpoint | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Capex | FY2025 Q4 | $170M–$180M | $175M | Guided |
| EPS | FY2025 | $6.93–$7.13 | $7.03 | Guided |
| EPS | FY2025 Q4 | $1.65–$1.85 | $1.75 | Guided |
| Operating margin | FY2025 | 29%–30% | 29.5% | Guided |
| Operating margin | FY2025 Q4 | 28%–30% | 29% | Guided |
| Revenue | FY2025 Q4 | $1.065B–$1.085B | $1.075B | Guided |
AI, capex & demand read
Management read
Upbeat
Management expressed strong optimism about the AI inference opportunity and growth momentum in cloud infrastructure services, while acknowledging execution-driven upside.
Management AI read
Management is positioning Akamai Inference Cloud, launched with NVIDIA's Blackwell infrastructure, as a major growth driver, citing strong customer interest and early adopters, and believes AI inference at the edge is a new frontier that will require Akamai's distributed platform. They also see AI expanding the API security market and driving traffic growth in delivery.
Investment and capacity
Capex remains elevated at 21% of revenue in Q3, with Q4 guided to ~16%, primarily funding the expansion of cloud infrastructure services and the new AI Inference Cloud. Management indicated capex will be demand-driven and expects a roughly 1:1 ratio of capex to revenue for the inference business.
all 8 named companies below
Companiesreturns since call
Customers
Customers
Dr. Tom Leighton
Harmonic is an early customer of Akamai Inference Cloud, indicating adoption of edge AI for video content personalization and delivery.
Evidence
“Another customer, Harmonic, whose technology helps to distribute video content for television and the Internet, said...”
Customers
Dr. Tom Leighton
Monks is an early adopter of Akamai Inference Cloud, using it for real-time sports analytics, demonstrating the edge AI use case.
Evidence
“One of our initial customers, Monk's, The European digital first marketing technology services and consulting company said...”
Customers
Dr. Tom Leighton
Akamai now has all top 3 US cloud providers as customers. This is a strong validation of Akamai's distributed edge strategy, but represents a competitive threat to traditional centralized cloud providers. — This shows that even hyperscalers need to leverage edge providers for certain low-latency workloads, indicating a layered cloud architecture market.
Evidence
“As a great proof point for the advantages offered by Akamai's uniquely distributed compute capabilities, the top three cloud providers in the U.S. are all now using Akamai Cloud Infrastructure Services.”
Partners
Partners
Dr. Tom Leighton
Akamai's CIS revenue growth accelerated to 39% YoY from 30% last quarter, and management expects to potentially accelerate CIS growth further next year, indicating strong edge compute demand. — This signals robust demand for distributed edge computing, directly benefiting NVIDIA's GPU sales and server OEMs like Dell that supply capacity.
Evidence
“Together, NVIDIA and Akamai are moving inference closer to users everywhere, delivering faster, more scalable generative AI, and unlocking the next generation of intelligent applications.”
Competitors
Competitors
Dr. Tom Leighton
Suggests competitor security outages (potentially CrowdStrike) are driving customers to Akamai's more reliable platform, a positive for Akamai and negative for the competitor mentioned.
Evidence
“And we see what happens with our competitors who don't make that investment. You know, and for example, in security companies that we compete with, where, you know, some of them, they're down for an hour every quarter.”
Supply chain
Supply chain
Akamai's CIS revenue growth accelerated to 39% YoY from 30% last quarter, and management expects to potentially accelerate CIS growth further next year, indicating strong edge compute demand. — This signals robust demand for distributed edge computing, directly benefiting NVIDIA's GPU sales and server OEMs like Dell that supply capacity.
Ed McGowanExternal signals
Supply-chain alpha · 3returns since call
Akamai's CIS revenue growth accelerated to 39% YoY from 30% last quarter, and management expects to potentially accelerate CIS growth further next year, indicating strong edge compute demand.
Management expects the AI Inference Cloud capex per dollar of revenue to be similar to existing compute business (1:1) but with potentially better gross margins due to GPU scarcity.
Evidence
“It could be a little better with the GPU as a service because there is a scarcity there, so there's a pretty decent market price set for that today.”
Akamai now has all top 3 US cloud providers as customers. This is a strong validation of Akamai's distributed edge strategy, but represents a competitive threat to traditional centralized cloud providers.
Evidence
“the top three cloud providers in the U.S. are all now using Akamai Cloud Infrastructure Services”
Methodology & coverage
Management-only analysis. All 8 validated company mentions are shown. Reported actuals and forward guidance are kept separate. Public evidence is limited to eight short attributed quotes. AI-generated analysis can be incomplete or wrong; verify important claims against the original source.