Akamai Technologies Inc (AKAM) Q4 2025 Earnings Call Highlights: Robust Growth in Cloud and …

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Fri, February 20, 2026 at 2:03 PM GMT+9 4 min read

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**Revenue:** $1.095 billion, up 7% year over year as reported, and up 6% in constant currency.

**Non-GAAP Operating Margin:** 29%.

**Non-GAAP Earnings Per Share (EPS):** $1.84, up 11% year over year as reported and in constant currency.

**Cloud Infrastructure Services (CIS) Revenue:** $94 million, up 45% year over year as reported, and up 44% in constant currency.

**Security Revenue:** $592 million, up 11% year over year as reported, and 9% in constant currency.

**API Security and Zero Trust Enterprise Security Revenue:** $90 million, up 36% year over year and 34% in constant currency.

**Delivery Revenue:** $311 million, down 2% year over year as reported, and down 3% in constant currency.

**International Revenue:** $542 million, up 11% year over year, or up 8% in constant currency.

**Non-GAAP Net Income:** $270 million.

**Q4 CapEx:** $154 million, or 14% of revenue.

**Cash and Marketable Securities:** Approximately $1.9 billion as of December 31st.

**Full Year 2025 Share Buyback:** $800 million spent to buy back approximately 10 million shares.

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Release Date: February 19, 2026

For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript.

Positive Points

Akamai Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:AKAM) reported strong fourth-quarter results with revenue growing to $1.095 billion, up 7% year over year.

The company's cloud infrastructure services (CIS) revenue grew by 45% year over year, driven by broad-based demand and AI-related tailwinds.

Akamai launched the Akamai Inference Cloud, which supports AI inference at the edge, and secured a significant 4-year, $200 million contract with a major US tech company.

Security solutions performed well, with revenue from API security and zero trust enterprise security growing by 36% year over year.

Akamai was recognized by Forbes and the Wall Street Journal for its trustworthiness and management excellence, reflecting strong customer and market confidence.

Negative Points

Akamai faces significant inflationary pressure in the computer hardware market, particularly with memory chips, impacting CapEx forecasts.

The company anticipates a decline in operating margins for 2026 due to increased co-location and depreciation expenses.

Delivery revenue decreased by 2% year over year, highlighting ongoing challenges in this segment.

Akamai's CapEx is expected to be higher in 2026, driven by investments in AI infrastructure, which may impact short-term financial flexibility.

The company is experiencing supply constraints in the GPU market, which could affect the timing of revenue recognition from new contracts.

 






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Q & A Highlights

Q: Can you explain the impact of the increased CapEx on revenue, and does the $1 of CapEx still equal $1 of revenue? A: Edward McGowan, CFO, explained that due to inflation in memory chips, the $1 CapEx for $1 revenue does not hold true for this particular buying cycle, but it’s not far off. They are seeing a slightly lower return this year due to higher CapEx costs associated with memory prices.

Q: Can you provide more details on the Akamai Inference Cloud opportunity and the pipeline for potential customers? A: F. Thomson Leighton, CEO, stated that the pipeline is very strong, with the initial deployment of GPUs in 20 cities already sold out. They are ramping up investment due to strong demand, with interest in areas like transcoding, real-time translation, generative media, and more. The field of local LLMs is also a potential growth area.

Q: Regarding the major US tech customer, was this a new logo or an existing customer? A: Edward McGowan, CFO, confirmed it was an existing customer who was using Akamai for CDN and security. The customer has dramatically increased their spend, and Akamai hopes for more business with them.

Q: How do you view the competitive dynamics against hyperscalers, and are you seeing any changes? A: F. Thomson Leighton, CEO, noted that Akamai has competed with hyperscalers in delivery and security for over a decade, with no fundamental change. Akamai competes successfully, with two of the three big hyperscalers being large Akamai customers for delivery and security.

Q: What are the main reasons customers choose Akamai over hyperscalers for compute workloads at the edge? A: F. Thomson Leighton, CEO, highlighted performance, scale, and cost as key factors. Akamai offers better performance and scalability, especially for video-intensive tasks, and often at a lower cost compared to major cloud providers.

For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript.

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