Please note that today's comments include forward-looking statements, including those regarding revenue and earnings guidance. The factors include, but are not limited to, any impact from macroeconomic trends, the integration of any acquisition, geopolitical developments, and other risk factors identified in our filings with the SEC. Revenue grew to $1.095 billion, up 7% year-over-year as reported, and up 6% in constant currency. Non-GAAP operating margin was 29%, and non-GAAP earnings per share was $1.84, up 11% year-over-year as reported and in constant currency.
Q4 revenue for cloud infrastructure services, or CIS, was $94 million, up 45% year-over-year as reported and up 44% in constant currency. That's an acceleration from the 39% growth rate we achieved in Q3. Last quarter, Akamai took a major step toward the future with the launch of Akamai Inference Cloud, our platform to support the growing demand to scale AI inference on the internet. A very well-known antivirus software company chose Akamai's cloud for their VPN service, telling us they liked our performance and support better than what they previously got from two of our cloud competitors.
One of the world's largest retail companies expanded their use of our edge compute platform to improve their digital shopping experience and increase conversion rates. Our security solutions also performed well in Q4, led by continued strong demand for our market-leading API Security and Guardicore Segmentation solutions. Revenue from these high-growth security products grew 36% year-over-year as reported, and 34% in constant currency. Last quarter, we saw continued strong demand for our Guardicore Segmentation platform with both new and existing customers.
| Metric | Period | Current guidance |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue | Q1 2026 | $1.06B-$1.085B (up 4%-7% reported, 2%-5% cc) |
| Cash gross margin | Q1 2026 | ~71%-72% |
| Non-GAAP operating expenses | Q1 2026 | $339M-$348M |
| EBITDA margin | Q1 2026 | ~39%-41% |
| Non-GAAP depreciation expense | Q1 2026 | $145M-$147M |
| Non-GAAP operating margin | Q1 2026 | ~26%-27% |
| Non-GAAP EPS | Q1 2026 | $1.50-$1.67 (assumes ~19% tax rate, ~148M diluted shares) |
| CapEx | Q1 2026 | ~$254M-$264M (~23%-25% of revenue) |
| Revenue | FY2026 | $4.4B-$4.5B (up 5%-8% reported, 4%-7% cc) |
| Security revenue growth | FY2026 | high single digits in constant currency |
| CIS revenue growth | FY2026 | accelerate to 45%-50% YoY (building in H2, driven by AI inference cloud) |
| Delivery revenue growth | FY2026 | decline mid-single digits (OCA also declines mid-single digits) |
| Combined CIS + OCA growth (former methodology) | FY2026 | at least 20% YoY |
| Non-GAAP operating margin | FY2026 | ~26%-28% (at today's FX rates) |
| CapEx (AI inference cloud augmentation) | FY2026 | ~$250M incremental; plus ~$200M added for memory/server cost inflation |
| Metric | YoY | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Total revenue | +7% reported / +6% cc ($1.095B) | Higher-than-expected top line led by security high-growth suites and accelerating CIS/compute; a term-license tailwind. |
| Non-GAAP EPS | +11% reported and cc ($1.84) | Better-than-expected performance driven primarily by higher-than-expected top-line revenue in Q4. |
| Non-GAAP net income | $270M | Revenue upside flowing through at a 29% non-GAAP operating margin. |
| Compute revenue (CIS + OCA) | +14% reported and cc ($191M) | Rapid CIS growth, which now represents ~50% of total compute revenue. |
| Cloud infrastructure services (CIS) | +45% reported / +44% cc ($94M) | Broad-based demand across ISV solutions, IaaS/storage, EdgeWorkers/WebAssembly, plus emerging AI tailwinds; accelerated from 39% in Q3. |
| Security revenue | +11% reported / +9% cc ($592M) | Strength in high-growth API Security and Guardicore Segmentation plus a favorable term-license revenue tailwind. |
| API Security + Zero Trust enterprise security (combined) | +36% reported / +34% cc ($90M) | Strong new-and-existing customer demand across many verticals; low penetration leaving large runway. |
| API Security (standalone) | >+100% (>$100M exit run rate) | Rapid multi-vertical adoption; under 10% of existing customers have purchased it. |
| Delivery revenue | -2% reported / -3% cc ($311M) | Continued steadying but still-declining CDN trends; competitive pricing with fewer players in the market. |
| International revenue | +11% reported / +8% cc ($542M) | 50% of total revenue; aided by a $12M positive FX impact year-over-year. |
| Term license revenue | +50% ($18M vs $12M) | Favorable tailwind within security; one-to-three-year agreements with exceptionally high renewal rates. |
| Q4 CapEx | $154M (14% of revenue) | Investment in compute/CIS capacity ahead of rising demand. |
| Non-GAAP operating margin | 29% | Maintained despite ongoing growth investments in cloud, CIS, and go-to-market. |
| FX impact on revenue | +$12M YoY / -$5M sequential | US dollar fluctuations; ~$1.3B of revenue denominated in foreign currency (euro, yen, GBP largest exposures). |
| Topic | Previous mention | Current period | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI inference cloud as the next growth engine | Launched last quarter with NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs deployed across ~20 cities; early platform positioning. | Beta capacity already sold out; ~$250M CapEx to expand ~10x; anchored by a four-year ~$200M commitment; introducing a new cluster-based sales model alongside VM-hour/token. | — |
| CIS as a standalone growth story | Grew 39% in Q3, reported inside compute. | Accelerated to 45% (44% cc), ~50% of compute; will be reported as a standalone category starting Q1 2026, with eight quarters of history published; 2026 growth guided to 45%-50%. | — |
| Security portfolio mix shift to high-growth products | API Security and Guardicore emerging as growth drivers. | API Security + Zero Trust up 36%; API Security exiting >$100M run rate; Guardicore majority-new-customer bookings; legacy WAF/bot slower, Prolexic flattish. | — |
| Delivery stabilization | Long secular decline in the CDN business. | Steadying through 2025 at -2%/-3%; guided to continued mid-single-digit decline in 2026 with a competitive but rational pricing environment and fewer players. | — |
| Capital intensity and hardware inflation | Roughly $1 of CapEx per $1 of revenue rule of thumb. | Memory-chip inflation pushed 2026 CapEx up ~$200M and the $1:$1 rule no longer holds exactly (model a bit lower); sourcing servers from different suppliers to mitigate. | — |
| Winning against hyperscalers | Competed with hyperscalers in delivery and security for over a decade. | All three big U.S. hyperscalers now use Akamai compute (for performance/distribution, not cost); new logos and multi-vendor takeaways; market growing fast, not zero-sum. | — |
| Customer trust and reliability | Reputation built on delivery and security reliability. | Highlighted a competitor's multi-hour holiday outages; named to Forbes' Most Trusted / Best Companies and WSJ Best Managed lists, framed as a differentiator for critical AI workloads. | — |
| AI's dual impact on security and delivery | AI viewed largely as a compute opportunity. | AI aids attackers (larger botnets, deepfakes, shadow AI) creating demand for API Security and a Firewall for AI; scraper bots raise traffic but drive bot-management demand. | — |