Akamai reported third-quarter revenue of $1.122 billion, up 6% year on year, in results released on 5 November. Cloud infrastructure services grew 34% to $109 million, providing one of the strongest parts of the report.
Security revenue rose 9% to $622 million, while delivery and other cloud applications fell 3% to $391 million. The contrasting trends show a changing business mix rather than uniform growth across the company.
Revenue growth does not mean higher profit
GAAP net income declined 16% to $117 million, and operating income fell 35%. Those accounting results should remain alongside the stronger cloud figures when assessing the quarter.
The company also reports adjusted measures that exclude certain items. They provide another view of performance, but do not replace the accounting results or erase the costs included in them.
The cloud forecast is a future target
For 2027, Akamai forecasts cloud infrastructure revenue of $1.1 billion to $1.3 billion and total revenue growth of 17% to 22% at constant currency. Those are forward-looking projections, not revenue already earned.
The company points to multi-year customer commitments and new AI-related services as support for its ambitions. The practical test will be how commitments turn into delivered capacity, recognised revenue and sustainable margins. The latest accounts show cloud momentum, while the profit decline makes execution and investment costs equally important to the next stage.
