CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Akamai Technologies shares jumped Friday after the company said Anthropic committed $11.6 billion over seven years for cloud computing, with an option to add as much as $9 billion more.

The stock traded around $126.54 in early New York dealing on Sept. 25, up $16.13, or 14.6 percent, from Thursday’s close of $110.41. After-hours and premarket prints had been even higher, with Barron’s citing a rise of more than 21 percent to $133.84 before the open.

Akamai said the contract will “support Anthropic’s accelerating CPU workload demands by leveraging Akamai Cloud’s distributed AI infrastructure and software.” It adds to more than $2.8 billion in multi-year cloud infrastructure commitments the company has already disclosed this year.

Chief Executive Tom Leighton said: “Anthropic is advancing the AI revolution and we are thrilled they chose Akamai’s capabilities for building and operating AI infrastructure at scale.”

Anthropic did not immediately comment to Barron’s.

As part of the pact, Akamai issued a warrant covering about 7.7 million shares on an as-converted basis, or up to about 5 percent of common stock outstanding. The exercise price is $111.33 a share. About 2 percent of the equity is tied to the initial $11.6 billion commitment; another 3 percent could vest if the companies expand the deal by up to $9 billion, according to summaries of the announcement. That would take the potential commitment near $20 billion.

Building the capacity is expensive. Barron’s reported Akamai expects $5.5 billion in new capital spending, including memory purchases, with $1.6 billion of that in 2026. Benzinga cited about $1.7 billion of extra 2026 capital expenditure to lock in supply-chain parts and said the company sees no change to 2026 revenue guidance. An investor-update recap said revenue from the Anthropic work is expected to ramp toward $1.7 billion a year by 2028.

Akamai is best known as a content-delivery network that later pushed into cybersecurity and cloud infrastructure. Delivery revenue has been under pressure. Security is the largest profit engine. Cloud Infrastructure Services is smaller but growing fast. In the second quarter ended June 30, total revenue was $1.1 billion, up 5 percent. Security was $604 million, up 10 percent. Cloud Infrastructure Services was $99 million, up 39 percent. Delivery and other cloud applications fell 6 percent to $396 million.

GAAP diluted earnings were $0.52, down 27 percent. Non-GAAP diluted earnings were $1.59. Cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities were $4.616 billion. The company had guided full-year 2026 revenue to $4.445 billion–$4.530 billion before this announcement and said the new deal does not alter that 2026 top-line range — meaning most of the $11.6 billion sits in later years.

Anthropic, maker of the Claude models, is privately held and filed confidential IPO paperwork in June, Barron’s noted. AI labs have been signing multiyear compute contracts with Nvidia-heavy clouds such as Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud and CoreWeave. A large CPU-focused deal with Akamai is a different flavor of capacity: inference and supporting workloads spread across Akamai’s edge footprint rather than a single training campus.

Investors repriced Akamai as more than a CDN with a security wrap. The share count implied by the warrant is dilution if Anthropic exercises. The capex is cash out the door before the revenue curve steepens. Those are the offsets. The bid on Friday treated the contract size as the headline.

Akamai’s next scheduled earnings date in market calendars was around Nov. 5. Until then, the tape is trading a seven-year number, a warrant at $111.33, and a stock that closed Thursday at $110.41 after a 6.8 percent drop and opened Friday in the mid-$120s.

The company still has to buy memory, stand up servers and keep Anthropic’s usage on the committed path. Anthropic still has to need that CPU layer for seven years. Friday’s move is the market assigning a higher probability that both happen.

A women’s apparel company that caters to price-conscious consumers announced the closure of 120 retail stores by the end of the fiscal year.

The Cato Corporation, parent company of Cato Fashions, operates more than 1,000 women’s apparel and accessories stores across 31 states. 

The slated closures account for more than 10% of its stores, Fast Company reported.

Cato, which was founded in 1946, focuses on budget-wary consumers, much like TJ Maxx or Ross Dress for Less.

WALMART SAYS IT WILL USE BILLIONS IN TARIFF REFUNDS TO KEEP PRICES LOW

Cato Fashions, an American retailer of women’s fashions and accessories, will close 120 locations by the end of the fiscal year, the company has announced.  (Getty Images / Getty Images)

The Cato Corporation also operates two other retailers — Versona, an upscale apparel, jewelry, and accessories brand with 90 locations in the U.S., and its It’s Fashion and It’s Fashion Metro brands, which have 119 locations in the U.S.

Last week, the Charlotte, North Carolina-based corporation announced it would close 120 stores, an increase from the initial 50 the company originally announced.

HOW SHOULD BUSINESSES APPROACH TARIFF REFUNDS?

Bright-colored tops hanging on a rack. (iStock / iStock)

“Annually, we review approximately one-third of our stores to exercise available lease options or negotiate an extension based on each store’s performance, including store sales trends and current and projected store profitability,” John Cato, the company chairman, president and CEO, said in a statement.

“In light of the current economic environment, especially with the negative pressure on our customers’ discretionary income, we do not expect these marginal stores to improve appreciably,” he added. “As a result, we are closing more stores than expected this year. We believe that closing these additional stores will have a positive impact on our operating results in fiscal 2027 and beyond.”

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In August, the company reported a net income of just $1.1 million for the second quarter, down from $6.8 million the company brought in during the same period a year earlier, the news report states. 

Tesla on Thursday announced that the electric vehicle maker was beginning deliveries of its Semi trucks to customers this week.

Executives at Tesla’s plant in Sparks, Nevada, made the announcement that the first customers will take delivery of the electric big rigs about nine years after CEO Elon Musk first announced the company’s plans to develop the long-haul freight trucks.

The Semi aims to open a new market for Tesla, which has long been known for its EV sedans and SUVs, by creating an electric option for commercial freight haulers.

The announcement comes at a time when diesel prices have surged to record highs, raising costs on firms in the trucking industry.

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Tesla semi trucks recharge at a charging station at the Frito-Lay production facility in Modesto. (Andy Alfaro/Modesto Bee/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

Tesla didn’t disclose its plans for production volumes of the Semi or its pricing at a webcast event held late Thursday at the plant, though it reiterated plans to build 50,000 Semis a year at the Nevada facility.

Elon Musk wasn’t in attendance at the event but said in a recorded video message that, “I’d recommend placing more orders if you haven’t already, but the waiting list is already pretty significant.

Several companies that have purchased the Semi – including PepsiCo, DHL and U.S. Foods – were in attendance at the Tesla event and were invited on stage, while trucks with their logos were shown outside.

The long-range variant of the Semi has a range of 500 miles with a single charge, as Tesla director of Semi truck engineering Dan Priestly said, those are “500 real-world miles. Our customers have validated it.” The standard version of the Semi has a shorter range of 325 miles on a single charge.

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An attendee gets into a Tesla Semi during the 2026 ACT Expo at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nev. (Ian Maule / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

Tesla and Musk first unveiled the Semi in 2017 and planned to start production in 2019, though it faced delays due to supply chain disruptions.

The first Semi was delivered to U.S. customers, including PepsiCo, in late 2022 – though those trucks were made on Tesla’s lower-volume pilot production lines.

The EV maker’s first truck rolled off the high-volume production line in April. While volume production was expected to start this year, Tesla has since adjusted that guidance to not explicitly state that it will reach high-volume production this year.

TESLA’S ELECTRIC SEMI-TRUCK TAKES ON DIESEL BIG RIG

Despite delays, competition and shifts in EV policy in the U.S., Tesla received a new order for 2,500 Semis from a coalition of major cargo-owning shipping companies – including Microsoft and PepsiCo, according to the nonprofit Catalyst Mobility. The group noted that figure is nearly double the existing fleet of electric Class 8 trucks.

Additionally, Swedish freight technology company Einride announced a deal last week to add 500 Semi trucks to its fleet.

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Reuters contributed to this report.

This article was written by

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KANSAS CITY — Foodservice operators are continuing to utilize limited-time menu innovations to drive consumer traffic.

For instance, P.F. Chang’s unveiled a menu collection inspired by autumn traditions in Kyoto, Japan, ranging from two duck offerings to Wagyu egg rolls. The duck items include duck wings, which are tossed in teriyaki sauce then topped with toasted sesame seeds, Fresno peppers and scallions, and duck fried rice, which combines shredded duck, a fried egg, edamame, fried shallots, kimchi, julienned vegetables, chili jam and chili-spiced butter. The egg rolls are formulated with Wagyu beef, julienned vegetables, black pepper, garlic, ginger and black garlic aioli.

“Autumn gives us the opportunity to work with deeper, richer flavors and ingredients that feel especially craveable this time of year,” said Steve Solis, vice president of culinary at P.F. Chang’s. “We challenged ourselves to reimagine familiar P.F. Chang’s favorites through unexpected seasonal pairings. The result is a menu that feels comforting and approachable but still delivers the bold flavor and sense of discovery our guests come to us for.”

CKE Restaurants Holdings, Inc. subsidiary Carl’s Jr. debuted the first product under its Burger Revolution platform, a systemwide cooked-to-order initiative, with the Angus Maximus burger. The LTO features two Angus beef patties, American cheese, sliced onions, dill pickles and special sauce.

“Carl’s Jr. has never been in the business of serving burgers that are just good enough,” said Iwona Alter, brand president for Carl’s Jr. “The Burger Revolution and our shift to a cooked-to-order process represent our commitment to raising the standard across the entire Carl’s Jr. experience. The Angus Maximus is the perfect burger to lead that charge, bringing two charbroiled 100% Angus beef patties, bold flavor and the quality and value our guests deserve.”

Paris Baguette is tapping into the sweet heat trend with two Halloween menu items. The ghost pepper chocolate marble mochi donut blends Paris Baguette’s mochi donut format with chocolate marble frosting and spice from a ghost pepper, and ghost pepper iced hot chocolate features an iced hot chocolate beverage with an infusion of heat from ghost peppers.

“This Halloween, we wanted to surprise and delight with something unexpected, the fiery kick of ghost pepper paired with rich, indulgent chocolate, while still embracing the nostalgia that makes Halloween so special,” said Cathy Chavenet, chief marketing officer of Paris Baguette North America.

For most of the past two decades, the Thailand-China relationship was defined by trade volume and Chinese manufacturing relocation. Increasingly, it is defined by something else: the transfer of Chinese technology, standards, and industrial know-how directly into the operating base of the Thai economy. The factory floors of Rayong and the boardrooms of Bangkok are where that shift is now visible, and it is reshaping what Thai competitiveness looks like for the rest of this decade.

Key Takeaways

From trade partner to technology supplier

Thailand and China established diplomatic relations in 1975, when bilateral trade barely registered on either country’s books. By 1999 it had grown to a modest $4.22 billion, and by 2008 it had climbed to $36.2 billion. What followed was an acceleration few bilateral relationships in the region can match: $126 billion by 2023, and $153 billion in 2025. Thailand’s prime minister has framed this trajectory in explicit terms, describing the country’s ambition to become a regional hub for trade, investment, and innovation, with China cast as its primary partner in that transformation. At the opening of the Thailand-China Cooperation Expo 2026, Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul went further, pushing back directly on academic criticism that Chinese capital arrives without real technology transfer by insisting there is simply “no need for classrooms” to prove the point.

The AI cooperation pivot

The clearest signal of this new phase came in July 2026, when Thailand and China held high-level talks reaffirming their comprehensive strategic partnership. Both governments agreed to deepen cooperation specifically around artificial intelligence, covering digital transformation, industrial upgrading, talent development, AI governance, cybersecurity, and applied innovation. That is a different kind of agreement than the infrastructure and trade deals that have anchored the relationship for years. It treats AI capability itself as the thing being transferred, not just the factories and ports that AI eventually runs on.

That framing matters because of how Chinese AI is actually showing up inside Thai industry. Huawei and Alibaba Cloud have effectively built the digital backbone of the Eastern Economic Corridor, supplying the 5G and cloud infrastructure that underpins everything from Laem Chabang port logistics to smart grid management. Rather than competing at the frontier-model layer the way US firms do, Chinese technology in Thailand is concentrated in applied industrial AI: optimizing logistics, managing ports, and running the automation systems inside factories. It is a less visible form of influence than a headline chip deal, but arguably a more durable one, because it embeds Chinese standards and platforms into the daily operations of Thai business.

The commercial side of this digital integration is already substantial. TikTok’s parent ByteDance has committed over 270 billion baht in long-term investment covering data infrastructure, AI processing, and SME support in Thailand, while Alibaba Cloud, Huawei, and Ant Group are embedded across e-commerce, cloud computing, and fintech at a scale no Western technology company currently matches on the ground. What began as a trade relationship is becoming a shared digital economic corridor.

Where the innovation is landing

Three sectors show most clearly where this technology transfer is concentrated: robotics, semiconductors, and electric vehicles.

In robotics, Chinese firms have stopped treating Thailand purely as a market to sell into and started treating it as a base to manufacture from. The Thai government has approved a 10 billion baht robotics investment inside the Eastern Economic Corridor, led by five Chinese technology companies building a humanoid-robot components cluster in Chachoengsao province. Alongside it, Thailand’s National Science and Technology Development Agency is co-developing robotics and automation systems directly with Chinese partners at the SMC-Siasun Innovation Center in Rayong, rather than simply importing finished hardware.

Somboon Advance Technology, one of Thailand’s largest auto parts suppliers, has already built what it calls Southeast Asia’s first fully operational 5G smart factory in partnership with Siasun and Huawei. The scale of the underlying capital flow is striking: in the first half of 2026 alone, foreign investment approvals in Thailand rose 68 percent year-on-year to nearly 188 billion baht, with China leading by number of approved businesses, 110 nationally and 69 inside the EEC specifically.

In semiconductors and advanced electronics, Thailand has attracted over $26.8 billion in investment applications across roughly 880 high-tech projects between 2023 and mid-2026, spanning chips, advanced electronics, EVs, and high-performance computing, and that figure has since surged past $30 billion as the country positions itself for next-generation chip and AI manufacturing. More than half of the world’s top printed circuit board manufacturers have now chosen Thailand as a production base.

Kris Leetavorn, director of PCB manufacturer Advanced Connection Technology, put the appeal in plain terms for firms weighing where to locate: Thailand’s electronics supply chain and “supportive state policies were critical to our investment decision.” While much of this capital is diversified across Japanese, Taiwanese, and Western firms as well, Chinese investment is a growing share of it, and Chinese companies are now the second-largest customer group in Thailand’s industrial estates after Japan.

Electric vehicles remain the most mature example of Chinese industrial transfer, though the story there is entering a more disciplined phase, with Thai regulators tightening EV market rules and drafting a Lemon Law as the first wave of Chinese-brand adoption matures into a more normal, more scrutinized consumer market.

China’s own pivot shapes what comes next

Understanding where this relationship goes next requires understanding what is happening inside China itself. In the second half of 2026, China entered what regional analysts describe as a stable slowdown, lowering its GDP growth target to a range of 4.5 to 5.0 percent, the clearest signal in three decades that Beijing is deliberately trading quantity-driven growth for quality-driven development.

The government’s stated growth engines going forward are new quality productive forces, meaning concentrated investment in AI, advanced technology, and innovation, alongside a proactive fiscal policy expanding the deficit to stimulate demand, and a regulatory push to restructure price competition in sectors like EVs and food delivery toward quality rather than volume.

That pivot has a direct bearing on Thailand. As China shifts from being the world’s factory to positioning itself as an exporter of innovation and advanced technology, the kind of capital and expertise flowing into Thailand is changing in character. It is less about low-cost assembly relocating across the border and more about mid-market Chinese firms in robotics, electronics, and AI-adjacent manufacturing setting up regional operations that assume Thailand is a genuine node in the next phase of their growth, not just a tariff workaround.

The friction that comes with integration

None of this is friction-free, and Thai executives navigating the relationship face three intersecting risks.

The most immediate is transshipment scrutiny. In August 2026, the White House released a report titled The Great Transshipment Scam, accusing more than 40 countries, Thailand among them, of facilitating the rerouting of Chinese exports to dodge US tariffs, and warning that goods found to be illegally transshipped could face an additional 40 percent duty. White House trade office head Peter Navarro argued China has developed “extremely sophisticated” methods for rerouting goods since the first tariffs went on in 2018.

Thailand has already felt this kind of pressure directly: the United States imposed anti-dumping and countervailing duties on Thai solar cell exports in April 2025 at rates between 375 and 972 percent, a scale of penalty that signals how seriously Washington is treating the issue, and one that risks catching genuinely Thai-made goods in the same net as transshipped ones. In response, Thai authorities have tightened export compliance, requiring formal origin verification before exporters of goods like solar panels and steel products can receive the certificates needed for US customs clearance.

The second risk is currency and dependency exposure. As yuan-baht settlement mechanisms expand from bilateral trade into broader consumer finance, the US dollar’s role in Thai-China commerce could shrink faster than most treasury teams have modeled, a shift worth tracking through Bank of Thailand policy communications. Layered on top of that is a more structural dependency risk: on Chinese EV supply chains, green energy components, and rare earth materials, alongside continued pressure from cheap Chinese consumer goods competing directly with Thai producers.

The third is data and AI governance. As Chinese platforms and cloud infrastructure become embedded in Thai commercial operations, the rules governing data sovereignty, algorithmic transparency, and cross-border data flows will determine how freely that infrastructure can actually operate, and how much leverage Thailand retains over systems it does not own.

From follower to co-creator

What emerges from these threads is a Thailand that has made a strategic choice, whether or not it has been stated as bluntly as that. The country is betting that closer integration with Chinese innovation, in AI, robotics, semiconductors, and digital infrastructure, is worth the compliance costs and dependency risks that come with it. BOI Secretary-General Narit Therdsteerasukdi has started framing the agency’s objective in exactly those terms, saying the goal now is “anchoring Thailand as an indispensable co-creator of the future global supply chain,” not merely keeping pace with technology developed elsewhere.

Whether that ambition holds will depend on execution that Thailand controls more directly than the trade data suggests: how well domestic content and technology-transfer requirements attached to EEC incentives actually keep value onshore, how effectively Thai regulators manage the transshipment relationship with Washington without cutting off the investment flow from Beijing, and how much of the AI and robotics know-how arriving from Chinese partners actually diffuses into Thai firms rather than remaining walled off inside joint ventures. The capital and the technology are arriving. The next few years will show whether Thailand converts that into capability it owns, or simply into a more sophisticated version of the assembly-line role it has played for decades.