Akamai forecasts annual revenue above estimates on cloud infrastructure momentum

Feb 19 (Reuters) - Akamai Technologies forecast 2026 revenue above Wall Street estimates on Thursday, signaling confidence that ‌growth in its cloud infrastructure services will continue ‌to accelerate.

The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company is capitalizing on demand in the security ​and compute segments, as enterprises prioritize securing applications and web infrastructure while transitioning to cloud environments.

Customers are increasingly adopting multi-cloud strategies to optimize costs and avoid vendor lock-ins, creating ‌an opening for Akamai's ⁠specialized edge-computing services.

Businesses have also been increasing spending on security tools amid a surge in ⁠sophisticated cybercrime and state-sponsored threats, boosting demand for Akamai's security offerings.

The company expects 2026 revenue between $4.40 billion and $4.55 billion, the ​midpoint of ​which is ahead of ​analysts' average estimate of $4.42 billion, ‌according to data compiled by LSEG.

Akamai is seeing some increase in costs for memory in the marketplace, CEO Tom Leighton told Reuters in an interview.

The company might look at some increase in prices as it would need to ‌pass the costs on, but ​would be very careful while doing ​so, he added.

The rapid ​build-out of artificial intelligence infrastructure by big ‌tech firms has absorbed much ​of the world's ​memory chip supply, lifting prices as manufacturers prioritize components for higher-margin data centers over consumer devices.

For the fourth ​quarter ended ‌December 31, Akamai posted revenue of $1.10 billion, beating an ​estimate of $1.08 billion.

(Reporting by Juby Babu in Mexico ​City; Editing by Jonathan Ananda)