10-Q – 2026-05-08 – akam-20260331.htm

We expect to continue to pursue acquisitions and other types of strategic relationships that involve technology sharing or close cooperation with other companies. Acquisitions and other complex transactions are accompanied by a number of risks, including the following: difficulty integrating technologies, operations and personnel while maintaining the quality standards; potential disruptions of our ongoing business and distraction of management attention; diversion of financial and business resources from core operations or other attractive investments; financial consequences, such as increased operating expenses, incurrence of material post-closing liabilities, incurrence of additional debt and other dilutive effects on our earnings, particularly in the current environment where we have seen relatively high valuations of, and valuation expectations for, many technology companies and increasing allocation of risk to acquirors; failure to realize synergies or other expected benefits; lawsuits resulting from an acquisition or disposition; the inability to retain the acquired company's key talent; exposure to
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cybersecurity risks and the cost associated with remediating those risks in connection with the acquisition of IT systems; increased accounting charges such as impairment of goodwill or intangible assets, amortization of intangible assets acquired and a reduction in the useful lives of intangible assets acquired; the need to use substantial portions of available cash or dilutive issuances of securities to finance large transactions; and potential unknown liabilities and regulatory requirements associated with an acquired business.

The data practices and technology systems of businesses that we have acquired, or may acquire, and our efforts to integrate our acquisitions with our existing technologies have in the past and may in the future pose risks, such as cybersecurity vulnerabilities or past cybersecurity or privacy incidents. Following an acquisition, we work to enhance the security and reliability of our systems. As such, there is a period of increased cybersecurity risk during the period between closing an acquisition and the completion of our security upgrades and integration. For example, as part of the integration of the Linode compute platform into Akamai's platform and the migration of certain applications and products from third party cloud providers onto Akamai's platform, we have been working to enhance the security and reliability of the integrated systems. While we continue to make progress on these efforts, the mitigation of a number of risks is ongoing and thus certain underlying vulnerabilities remain that, if exploited, could negatively impact Akamai's platform and our customers. Despite our efforts to enhance the security and reliability of our systems, our information technology systems and those of third parties with whom we do business or communicate may be damaged, disrupted, or shut down due to attacks by unauthorized access, malicious software, computer viruses, undetected intrusion, hardware failures, or other events. In addition, our disaster recovery plans may be ineffective or inadequate.

Any inability to integrate completed acquisitions or combinations in an efficient and timely manner could have an adverse impact on our results of operations.

If current and potential large customers shift to DIY internal solutions for content and application delivery or security protection, our business will be negatively impacted.

We are reliant on some of our larger customers to direct traffic to our network for a significant part of our revenues. At times, some of our customers have determined that it is better for them to employ a “do-it-yourself” or “DIY” strategy by putting in place equipment, software and other technology solutions for content and application delivery and security protection within their internal systems instead of using our solutions for some or all of their needs. As the amount of money a customer spends with us increases, the risk that they will seek alternative solutions such as DIY or a multi-vendor policy likewise increases. While the number of customers implementing a DIY strategy had been decreasing, current global economic and geopolitical conditions may cause customers to increase their focus on DIY solutions, which could negatively impact traffic on our network, and, as a result, our revenue. For example, a large social media customer has taken steps to lower costs and reduce reliance on U.S. providers by optimizing its platform, including using a DIY component, which reduced traffic on our network and negatively impacted our revenue in 2024 and may continue to do so in the future. If our customers increase their use of DIY solutions or if multiple additional large customers shift to this model, traffic on our network and our contracted revenue commitments could decrease more significantly, which could negatively impact our business, profitability, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows.

If we are unable to recruit and retain key employees and qualified sales, research and development, technical, marketing and support personnel, our ability to compete could be harmed.

Our future success depends upon the services of our executive officers and other key technology, sales, research and development, marketing and support personnel who have critical industry experience and relationships. Attracting, hiring and retaining highly skilled and qualified employees continues to be a priority and a key dependency for our ongoing success. If we fail to attract new personnel, fail to retain and motivate our current personnel or fail to effectively train our employees to support our business needs, our business and future growth prospects could suffer. For example, none of our officers or key employees are bound by an employment agreement for any specific term, and members of our senior management have left our company over the years for a variety of reasons. In addition, effective succession planning is important to our long-term success and our failure to ensure effective transfer of knowledge and smooth transitions involving our officers and other key personnel could hinder our strategic planning and execution.

In addition, our future success will depend upon our ability to attract, train and retain employees, particularly in our expected areas of growth such as security and cloud infrastructure services. Such efforts will require time, expense and attention by our employees as there is significant competition for talented individuals. This competition results in increased costs in the form of cash and stock-based compensation and can have a dilutive impact on our stock. Our ability to hire and retain employees may be adversely affected by volatility in our stock price or our ability to obtain shareholder approval to offer
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additional stock to our employees, because a significant portion of our compensation is in the form of equity grants. We are retasking certain employees to work on our cloud infrastructure services solutions which will require the use of our resources and if we are unable to successfully retrain our employees, our cloud computing business may suffer. Furthermore, geopolitical events may impact our retention efforts. For example, the military conflict and other hostilities in the Middle East have impacted and could continue to impact our workforce in Israel, as employees have been and may continue to be required to report for military service or have other competing priorities. The loss of the services of a significant number of our employees or any of our key employees or our inability to attract and retain new talent in a timely fashion may be disruptive to our operations and overall business.

Our failure to manage new risks as our business evolves and our work practices change could harm us.

As a result of the diversification of our business, personnel growth, the deployment of our FlexBase program, acquisitions and international expansion in recent years, most of our employees are now based outside of our Cambridge, Massachusetts headquarters. Because most of our employees work remotely, we are subject to additional risks. For example, certain security systems in homes or other remote workplaces may be less secure than those used in our offices, which may subject us to increased security risks, including cybersecurity-related events, and expose us to risks of data or financial loss and associated disruptions to our business operations. If we are unable to effectively maintain a hybrid workforce, manage the cybersecurity and other risks of remote work and maintain our corporate culture and workforce morale, our business could be harmed or otherwise negatively impacted.

Additionally, if we are unable to appropriately increase management depth, enhance succession planning and decentralize our decision-making at a pace commensurate with our actual or desired growth rates, we may not be able to achieve our financial or operational goals. It is also important to our continued success that we hire qualified personnel, integrate new employees from our recent acquisitions, properly train them and manage poorly-performing personnel, all while maintaining our corporate culture and spirit of innovation. If we are not successful in these efforts, our growth and operations could be adversely affected.

Our restructuring and reorganization activities may be disruptive to our operations and harm our business.

Over the past several years, we have implemented internal restructurings and reorganizations designed to reduce the size and cost of our operations, improve operational efficiencies and reprioritize investments, enhance our ability to pursue market opportunities and accelerate our technology development initiatives. During the first quarter of 2023, the third quarter of 2024 and the fourth quarter of 2025, management committed to actions to restructure certain parts of the Company, including reducing headcount, to enable it to prioritize investments in the fastest growing areas of the business and redeploy resources to support the Company's strategic investments. We may take similar steps in the future as we seek to realize operating synergies, optimize our operations to achieve our target operating model and profitability objectives, respond to market forces or better reflect changes in the strategic direction of our business. In addition, in 2025 management introduced changes to the sales organization and sales compensation structure to work to optimize sales performance and to better align sales incentives to the fastest growing areas of the business. Disruptions in operations may occur as a result of taking these actions. Taking these actions may also result in significant expense, including with respect to workforce reductions, decreased productivity due to employee distraction and unanticipated employee turnover which could adversely affect our operating results.

We may have exposure to greater-than-anticipated tax liabilities.

Our future income taxes could be adversely affected by earnings being lower than anticipated in jurisdictions that have lower statutory tax rates and higher than anticipated in jurisdictions that have higher statutory tax rates, or changes in tax laws, regulations or accounting principles, as well as certain discrete items such as equity-related compensation. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (“OECD”) and participating OECD member countries continue to work toward the enactment of a 15% global minimum corporate tax rate for large multinational enterprise groups, also known as "Pillar Two." Many of the participating countries have enacted legislation that became effective beginning in 2024, while other countries continue to work on defining the underlying rules and administrative procedures. Although the enacted and effective legislation in some countries was applicable to us as of January 1, 2024, and increased our effective income tax rate, the increase did not have a material impact on our overall results of operations or cash flows. We will continue to monitor and evaluate the impacts of the developing legislation.

We have recorded certain tax reserves to address potential exposures involving our income tax and indirect tax positions. These potential tax liabilities result from the varying application of statutes, rules, regulations and interpretations by different jurisdictions. We are currently subject to tax audits in various jurisdictions. If the ultimate outcome of any tax audits are adverse
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to us, our reserves may not be adequate to cover our total actual liability, and we would need to take a financial charge. Although we believe our estimates, our reserves and the positions we have taken in all jurisdictions are reasonable, the ultimate tax outcome may differ from the amounts recorded in our financial statements and may materially affect our financial results in the period or periods for which such determination is made.

Fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates affect our reported operating results in U.S. dollar terms.

Because we conduct a substantial portion of our business outside the United States, we face exposure to adverse movements in foreign currency exchange rates, which could have a material adverse impact on our financial results and cash flows. These exposures may change over time as business practices evolve and economic conditions change.

The fluctuations of currencies in which we conduct business can both increase and decrease our overall revenue and expenses for any given period. This exposure is the result of selling in multiple currencies, headcount in foreign locations and operating in countries where the functional currency is the local currency. Revenue generated and expenses incurred by our international subsidiaries are often denominated in their local currencies, but many of our expenses related to our operations in foreign jurisdictions are denominated in U.S. dollars. As a result, our consolidated U.S. dollar financial statements are subject to fluctuations due to changes in exchange rates as the financial results of our international subsidiaries are translated from local currencies into U.S. dollars. For example, in 2025, the weakening of the U.S. dollar had a positive impact on our revenue and increased our overall profitability, but if this dynamic reverses, it would have a negative impact on our revenue and profitability. In addition, our financial results are subject to changes in exchange rates that impact the settlement of transactions in non-functional currencies.

In addition, we have recently experienced increased volatility in foreign currency exchange rates, due to a number of factors, including geopolitical and economic developments. We may not be able to effectively manage such volatility, and our financial results have in the past and could in the future be adversely impacted as a result of such volatility. In addition, such volatility, even when it increases our revenues or decreases our expenses, impacts our ability to accurately predict our future results and earnings.

Our sales to government clients subject us to risks, including early termination, audits, investigations, sanctions and penalties.

We have customer contracts with the U.S. government, as well as international, state and local governments and their respective agencies and we may in the future increase sales to government entities. Sales to government entities are subject to a number of risks, and significant changes in the contracting or fiscal policies of such government organizations could have an adverse effect on our business and results of operations. Selling to government entities can be highly competitive, expensive, time consuming and subject to specific public tender and/or procurement processes and rules, often requiring significant upfront time and expense without any assurance that these efforts will generate a sale. Such government entities often have the right to terminate these contracts at any time, without cause, and may require us to issue on-demand performance bonds or guarantees. There is increased pressure for governments and their agencies, both domestically and internationally, to reduce spending and demand and payment for our services may be impacted by public sector budgetary cycles and funding authorizations. These factors may combine to potentially limit the revenue we derive from government contracts in the future. Additionally, government contracts generally have requirements that are more complex than those found in commercial enterprise agreements and therefore are more costly to comply with. Such contracts are also subject to audits and investigations that could result in civil and criminal penalties and administrative sanctions, including contract termination, fee refunds, forfeiture of profits, suspension of payments, fines and suspensions or debarment from future government business.

We utilize third-party technology in our business, and failures or vulnerabilities, and/or litigation, related to these technologies may adversely affect our business.

We utilize third-party software, services and other technology to operate critical functions of our business, including the integration of certain of these technologies into our network, products and services, and in some cases our products and services include features designed to enable our customers and partners to write and execute their own software within our platform. If these software, services, or other technology become unavailable, malfunction or contain vulnerabilities, our expenses could increase and our ability to operate our network, provide our products and our results of operations could be impaired until equivalent software, technology, or services are purchased or developed or any identified vulnerabilities or malfunctioning are remedied. If we are unable to procure the necessary third-party technology we may need to acquire or develop alternative technology, or we may have to resort to utilizing alternative technology of lower quality. This could limit and delay our ability to offer new or competitive products and increase our costs of production. As a result, our business could be significantly
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harmed. In addition, the use of third-party technology may expose us to third-party claims of intellectual property infringement which could cause us to incur significant costs in defense or alternative sourcing.

We rely on certain “open-source” software, which may contain security flaws or other deficiencies, and the use of which could result in our having to distribute our proprietary software, including source code, to third parties on unfavorable terms, either of which could materially affect our business.

Certain of our offerings use software that is subject to open-source licenses. Open-source code is software that is freely accessible, usable and modifiable; however, certain open-source code is governed by license agreements, the terms of which could require users of such software to make any derivative works of the software available to others on unfavorable terms or at no cost. Because we use open-source code, we may be required to take remedial action in order to protect our proprietary software. Such action could include replacing certain source code used in our software, discontinuing certain of our products or taking other actions that could be expensive and divert resources away from our development efforts. In addition, the terms relating to disclosure of derivative works in many open-source licenses are unclear and have not been interpreted by U.S. courts. If a court interprets one or more such open-source licenses in a manner that is unfavorable to us, we could be required to make certain of our key software generally available at no cost. We could also be subject to similar conditions or restrictions should there be any changes in the licensing terms of the open-source software incorporated into our products. In either event, we could be required to seek licenses from third parties in order to continue offering our products, to re-engineer our products or to discontinue the sale of our products in the event re-engineering cannot be accomplished on a timely or successful basis, any of which could adversely affect our business, operating results and financial condition. Furthermore, open-source software may have security flaws and other deficiencies that could make our solutions less reliable and damage our business, and these risks may be heightened by advances in AI capabilities that enable the more rapid discovery and exploitation of such vulnerabilities.

We may not be successful in our artificial intelligence initiatives, which could adversely affect our business, reputation, or financial results.

Artificial intelligence presents new risks, opportunities and challenges that may affect our business. In addition to ongoing investments to integrate AI and machine learning technology into our existing products and solutions and to use AI to enhance our business operations, we recently launched AIC, a platform enabling AI inferencing at the edge of the internet, as a direct offering in the AI market. This introduces additional risks, as we now compete with established and emerging companies providing AI infrastructure and inference solutions. Given the nature of AI technology, we face significant competition from other companies and an evolving regulatory landscape. Our AI-focused initiatives, including AIC, may not be successful, and our competitors may incorporate AI into their products or market their AI solutions more successfully than us, which could impair our ability to compete effectively and adversely affect our financial results. Further, the rapid evolution of AI combined with the uncertain, rapidly evolving and often inconsistent regulatory landscape may require significant additional resources and costs and could in some cases limit our ability to implement AI capabilities in our solutions or to use AI to support business operations.AI systems and third-party AI services that we use may also introduce operational resilience and stability risks that could disrupt our services or customers' workloads and adversely affect our business, reputation or financial results. Further, data used to train AI-based systems may lead to harm to our reputation or financial results. Use of AI that has been trained on open-source code repositories for code development, for instance, may increase intellectual property risks, as well as risks related to ingestion of malicious code. Despite our implementation of programs designed to support responsible and safe AI use and development, we may not successfully address all issues that may arise. For example, user misuse of AI capabilities, privacy concerns, user consent, supply chain security, AI-related export controls, transparency and the accuracy, completeness and suitability of data sets are all potential issues that could adversely affect our business, reputation, or financial results.

Legal and Regulatory Risks

Evolving privacy regulations could negatively impact our profitability and business operations.

The nature and breadth of laws and regulations, or expanded interpretation of these laws and regulations, that relate to privacy on the internet and international data transfer restrictions may increase in the future. Accordingly, we are unable to assess the possible effect of compliance with future requirements or whether our compliance efforts will materially impact our business, results of operations or financial condition, as well as increase expenses or create other disadvantages to our business.

Privacy laws are rapidly proliferating, changing and evolving globally. Governments, private citizens and privacy advocates with class action attorneys are increasingly scrutinizing how companies collect, process, use, store, share and transmit personal data. Numerous laws and industry self-regulatory codes have been enacted, and additional and revised laws
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are being considered that may affect how we use data generated from our network as well as our ability to reach current and prospective customers, understand how our solutions are being used and respond to customer requests allowed under the laws. In the U.S., more than a dozen states now have comprehensive privacy laws, adding complexity, variation in requirements, restrictions, and potential legal risk requiring additional investment of resources in compliance programs. Any perception that our business practices, our data collection activities or how our solutions operate represent an invasion of privacy or improper practice, whether or not consistent with current regulations and industry practices, may subject us to public criticism or boycotts, class action lawsuits, reputational harm, or actions by regulators, or claims by industry groups or other third parties, all of which could disrupt our business and expose us to liability.

Engineering efforts to build new capabilities to facilitate compliance with increasing international data transfer restrictions and new and changing privacy laws and related customer demands could require us to take on substantial expenses and divert engineering resources from other projects. We might experience reduced demand for our offerings if we are unable to engineer products that meet our legal duties or help our customers meet their obligations under applicable data regulations, or if the changes we implement to comply with such laws and regulations make our offerings less attractive.

Our ability to leverage the data generated by our global networks is important to the value of many of the solutions we offer, our operational efficiency and future product development opportunities. Our ability to use data in this way may be constrained by regulatory developments. Compliance with applicable laws and regulations regarding personal data may require changes in services, business practices or internal systems that result in increased costs, lower revenue, reduced efficiency or greater difficulty in competing with other companies. Compliance with data regulations might limit our ability to innovate or offer certain features and functionality in some jurisdictions where we operate. Failure to comply with existing or new rules may result in significant penalties or orders to stop the alleged non-compliant activity, as well as negative publicity and diversion of management time and effort.

Our security controls over personal data, our training of employees and third parties on privacy, data security and other ethical data use practices we follow may not prevent the improper disclosure or misuse of customer or end-user data we process. Improper disclosure or misuse of personal data could harm our reputation, lead to legal exposure to customers or end users, or subject us to liability under laws that protect personal data, resulting in increased costs or loss of revenue.

Other regulatory developments could negatively impact our business.

U.S. and international laws and regulations that apply to the internet, including content liability, security requirements, law enforcement access to information, critical infrastructure, net neutrality, so-called "fair share" or internet content taxes, international data transfer restrictions, sanctions, export controls, restrictions on social media or other platforms, applications or content, as well as developing regulatory concerns related to digital or cloud sovereignty, could pose risks to our revenues, intellectual property and customer relationships and could increase expenses or create other disadvantages to our business. Section 230 of the U.S. Communications Decency Act, ("Section 230"), gives websites that host user-generated content broad protection from legal liability for content posted on their sites. Proposals to repeal or amend Section 230 could expose us to greater legal liability in the conduct of our business. Our Acceptable Use Policy prohibits customers from using our network to deliver illegal or inappropriate content; if customers violate that policy, we may nonetheless face reputational damage, enforcement actions or lawsuits related to their content. In addition, laws and regulations related to content could cause internet service providers, or others, to block our products in order to enforce content-blocking efforts. Efforts to block a single product or domain name may end up blocking a number of other products or domain names in an overbroad manner that could affect our business.

Certain jurisdictions are adopting or tightening data localization and data residency requirements that restrict where customer or employee data may be stored, processed, accessed or encrypted. In the U.S., regulators are increasingly scrutinizing and restricting certain personal data transfers and transactions involving foreign countries. For example, the Department of Justice’s January 8, 2025, rule on “Preventing Access to U.S. Sensitive Personal Data and Government-Related Data by Countries of Concern or Covered Persons,” prohibits data brokerage transactions involving certain sensitive personal data categories to countries of concern, including China. The regulations also restrict certain investment agreements, employment agreements and vendor agreements involving such data and countries of concern, absent specified cybersecurity controls.

Some jurisdictions, particularly the European Union (the "EU"), are also exploring broader “digital sovereignty” frameworks placing operational, ownership, and control requirements that must be met to provide services to certain markets or sectors. These measures have gathered steam over the past year based on the emergence of geopolitical tensions, including between the US and Europe. Together with limits on cross‑border data transfers and government access or audit obligations, they may prevent us from providing services in certain cases, or require us to provide in‑country or region‑specific hosting, rely
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on designated local partners, modify or limit features, or maintain segregated environments and duplicative infrastructure, routing, logging and support models. These developments could decrease our addressable market, increase our costs and complexity, lengthen sales cycles, limit the functionality or performance of our services in some markets and reduce economies of scale. These risks may accelerate or vary by region due to geopolitical factors, including changes in sanctions, export or import controls, tariffs and other trade restrictions, or regional conflicts.

Regulations have also been enacted or proposed in a number of countries that limit the delivery of certain types of content into those countries. Enactment and expansion of such laws and regulations would negatively impact our revenues. For example, restrictions were adopted in India in 2020 prohibiting access to identified Chinese-owned applications which caused a reduction in revenue to us. In addition, in April 2024, the U.S. government enacted the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act ("PAFACA"), which, among other things, prohibited the provision of certain types of services to a Chinese application if the application was not sold to a neutral third party by January 19, 2025. The President of the United States subsequently signed a series of Executive Orders delaying enforcement of the legislation, culminating with an Executive Order issued on September 25, 2025, which declared that a proposed sale of the Chinese-owned application's U.S. operations to a new joint-venture company complied with PAFACA's divestiture requirements and extended non-enforcement of PAFACA until January 23, 2026. These Executive Orders further directed the Department of Justice to issue guidance and letters stating there was no violation and no liability for conduct during the PAFACA non-enforcement periods, resulting in Akamai's receipt of an Attorney General determination that Akamai services had not violated the law and that we could continue providing services as contemplated by the Executive Orders without violating the law and without incurring any legal liability.

On January 22, 2026, the divestiture was finalized, and a new U.S.-based joint venture assumed operation of the U.S. application. Although the divestiture has been completed, certain aspects of the transaction could be subject to future governmental review or litigation. Further, it is difficult to predict whether any future legislative, regulatory or judicial actions, including those that may be brought against the Executive Orders, will be successful. There is no assurance that we will not be exposed to liability, and we may face significant fines, litigation, indemnification claims, negative publicity, reputational harm, diversion of management attention, interruptions in our operations, financial loss and other similar harms by continuing to provide services to this customer.

In addition, enactment and expansion of laws related to the use of AI and machine learning in our operations and increased regulation of cloud service providers also could increase the costs of doing business, subject us to potential liability or regulatory risk and introduce other disadvantages to our business, including brand or reputational harm. U.S. states have advanced and, in some cases, enacted numerous AI governance laws, creating a complicated legislative patchwork that may be litigated in state and federal courts, notwithstanding a December 2025 executive order endorsing a federal moratorium on enforcement of state AI laws. In Europe, the EU began implementing the Artificial Intelligence Act (the "AI Act") on August 1, 2024, with significant provisions scheduled to take effect in August 2026. The AI Act, which may be amended as part of the EU's Digital Omnibus, imposes significant obligations on providers and deployers of high-risk AI systems, and non-compliance can lead to substantial fines. If we develop or use AI systems governed by these laws or regulations, we may face burdensome and costly compliance obligations relating to data quality, transparency, human oversight, and ethical and administrative requirements, as well as significant enforcement actions or litigation in the event of any perceived non-compliance. Interpretations of laws or regulations that would subject us to regulatory enforcement actions, supervision or, alternatively, require us to exit a line of business or a country, could lead to the loss of significant revenues and have a negative impact on the quality of our solutions. Engineering efforts to build new capabilities to facilitate compliance with law enforcement access requirements, content access restrictions or other regulations could require us to take on substantial expenses and divert engineering resources from other projects. These circumstances could harm our profitability.

We may need to defend against patent or copyright infringement claims, which would cause us to incur substantial costs or limit our ability to use certain technologies in the future.

As we expand our business and develop new technologies, products and services, we have become increasingly subject to intellectual property infringement and other claims and related litigation. We have also agreed to indemnify our customers and channel and strategic partners if our solutions infringe or misappropriate specified intellectual property rights. As a result, we have been and could again become involved in litigation or claims brought against customers or channel or strategic partners if our solutions or technology are the subject of such allegations. Any litigation or claims, whether or not valid, brought against us or pursuant to which we indemnify our customers or partners could result in substantial costs and diversion of resources and require us to do one or more of the following: cease selling, incorporating or using features, functionalities, products or services that incorporate the challenged intellectual property; pay substantial damages and incur significant litigation expenses; obtain a
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license from the holder of the infringed intellectual property right, which license may not be available on reasonable terms or at all; or redesign products or services. If we are forced to take any of these actions, our business may be seriously harmed.

Our business will be adversely affected if we are unable to protect our intellectual property rights from unauthorized use or infringement by third parties.

We rely on a combination of patent, copyright, trademark and trade secret laws and contractual restrictions on disclosure to protect our intellectual property rights. These legal protections afford only limited protection, particularly in some regions outside the U.S. We have previously brought lawsuits against entities that we believed were infringing our intellectual property rights but have not always prevailed. Such lawsuits can be expensive and require a significant amount of attention from our management and technical personnel, and the outcomes are unpredictable. Monitoring unauthorized use of our solutions is difficult, and we cannot be certain that the steps we have taken or will take will prevent unauthorized use of our technology. Furthermore, we cannot be certain that any pending or future patent applications will be granted, that any future patent will not be challenged, invalidated or circumvented, or that rights granted under any patent that may be issued will provide competitive advantages to us. If we are unable to protect our proprietary rights from unauthorized use, the value of our intellectual property assets may be reduced. Although we have licensed from other parties proprietary technology covered by patents, we cannot be certain that any such patents will not be challenged, invalidated or circumvented. Such licenses may also be non-exclusive, meaning our competition may also be able to access such technology.

Litigation may adversely impact our business.

From time to time, we are or may become involved in various legal proceedings relating to matters incidental to the ordinary course of our business, including patent, commercial, product liability, breach of contract, employment, class action, whistleblower, other litigation, claims and governmental and other regulatory investigations and proceedings. In addition, under our charter, we could be required to indemnify and advance expenses to our directors and officers in connection with their involvement in certain actions, suits, investigations and other proceedings. Such matters can be time-consuming, divert management’s attention and resources and cause us to incur significant expenses. Furthermore, because litigation is inherently unpredictable and may not be covered by insurance, there can be no assurance that the results of any litigation matters will not have an adverse impact on our business, results of operations, financial condition or cash flows.

Global climate change, other disruptions and related natural resource conservation regulations could adversely impact our business.

The long-term effects of climate change on the global economy and our industry in particular remain unknown. For example, changes in weather where we operate may increase the costs of powering and cooling computer hardware we use to develop software and provide cloud services. In addition, catastrophic natural disasters, such as an earthquake, fire, flood or other act of God, and any similar disruption, as well as any derivative disruption, such as those to services provided through localized physical infrastructure, including utility or telecommunication outages, or any to the continuity of our, our partners’, suppliers’ and our customers’ workforce, could have a material adverse impact on our business and operating results. In addition, pandemics or other public health crises, as well as any derivative disruptions such as those experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic, in places where we operate may adversely affect our results of operations. Our global operations are dependent on our network infrastructure, technology systems and website, including the supply of servers from our third-party partners, as well as our intellectual property and personnel and any disruption to these dependencies may negatively impact our ability to respond to customers, provide services and maintain local and global business continuity. Furthermore, some of our products and business functions are hosted or carried out by third parties that may be vulnerable to these same types of disruptions, the response to or resolution of which may be beyond our control. Any disruption to our business could cause us to incur significant costs to repair damages to our facilities, equipment, infrastructure and business relationships.

In addition, in response to concerns about global climate change, governments may adopt new regulations affecting the use of fossil fuels or requiring the use of alternative fuel sources which could adversely impact our business. Our deployed network of servers consumes significant energy resources, including those generated by the burning of fossil fuels. While we have invested in projects to support renewable energy development, our customers, investors and other stakeholders may require us to take more steps to demonstrate that we are taking ecologically responsible measures in operating our business. The costs and any expenses we may incur to make our network more energy-efficient and comply with any new regulations could make us less profitable in future periods. Failure to comply with applicable laws and regulations or other requirements imposed on us could lead to fines, lost revenue and damage to our reputation.

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Investment-Related Risks

Our stock price has been, and may continue to be, volatile, and your investment could lose value.

The market price of our common stock has historically been volatile. Trading prices for our common stock may continue to fluctuate in response to a number of events and factors, including the following: quarterly variations in operating results; changes in guidance or failure to meet guidance; announcements by our customers related to their businesses that could be viewed as impacting their usage of our solutions; market speculation about whether we are a takeover target or considering a strategic transaction; announcements by us regarding acquisitions; announcements by competitors; the rapid development of AI technologies and market speculation regarding its potential competitive impact on particular industries or companies; activism by any single large stockholder or combination of stockholders or rumors about such activity; changes in financial estimates and recommendations by securities analysts; failure to meet the expectations of securities analysts; purchases or sales of our stock by our officers and directors; general economic conditions and other macroeconomic factors, such as inflationary pressures, foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations, energy prices, reduced consumer spending, elevated interest rates, the announcement or imposition of tariffs, recessionary economic cycles, protracted economic slowdowns and overall market volatility; repurchases of shares of our common stock; the issuance of additional shares or securities convertible into, or exchangeable or exercisable for, shares of our common stock, including under our equity compensation plans; entry into, or termination of, relationships with material customers and partners; and performance by other companies in our industry.

Furthermore, our revenue, particularly that portion attributable to usage of our solutions beyond customer commitments, can be difficult to forecast, and, as a result, our quarterly operating results can fluctuate substantially. This concern is particularly acute with respect to our media and commerce customers. In the future, our customer contracting models may change to move away from a committed revenue structure to a “pay-as-you-go” approach, which could make it easier for customers to reduce the amount of business they do with us or leave altogether. Changes in billing models and committed revenue requirements could, therefore, create challenges with our forecasting processes. Because a significant portion of our cost structure is largely fixed in the short-term, revenue shortfalls tend to have a disproportionately negative impact on our profitability. If we announce revenue or profitability results that do not meet or exceed our guidance, issue guidance that does not meet or exceed market expectations, or make changes in our guidance with respect to future operating results, our stock price may decrease significantly as a result.

Any of these events, as well as other circumstances discussed in these Risk Factors, may cause the price of our common stock to fall. In addition, the stock market in general, and the market prices of stock of publicly-traded technology companies in particular, have experienced significant volatility that often has been unrelated to the operating performance of affected companies. These broad stock market fluctuations may adversely affect the market price of our common stock, regardless of our operating performance.

Any failure to meet our debt obligations or obtain financing would damage our business.

As of the date of this report, we had total principal amount of $1,150.0 million of convertible senior notes outstanding due in 2027, total principal amount of $1,265.0 million of convertible senior notes outstanding due in 2029 and total principal amount of $1,725.0 million of convertible senior notes outstanding due in 2033. In November 2022, we entered into a credit agreement, which was amended in May 2025 to increase the aggregate revolving commitments to $1.0 billion. We also entered into a credit agreement in January 2025 providing for a $150.0 million revolving credit facility. As of March 31, 2026, there were no outstanding borrowings under the credit facilities. Our ability to repay any amounts we borrow under our credit facility, refinance the notes, make cash payments in connection with conversions of the notes or repurchase the notes in the event of a fundamental change (as defined in the applicable indenture governing the notes) will depend on market conditions and our future performance, which is subject to economic, financial, competitive and other factors beyond our control. We also may not use the cash we have raised through future borrowing under the credit facility or the issuance of the convertible senior notes in an optimally productive and profitable manner. If we are unable to remain profitable or if we use more cash than we generate in the future, our level of indebtedness at such time could adversely affect our operations by increasing our vulnerability to adverse changes in general economic and industry conditions and by limiting or prohibiting our ability to obtain additional financing for additional capital expenditures, acquisitions and general corporate and other purposes. If we do not have sufficient cash upon conversion of the notes or to repurchase the notes if required by purchasers in accordance with the terms thereof, we would be in default under the terms of the notes, which could seriously harm our business. Although the terms of our credit facilities include certain covenants that potentially limit our future indebtedness, the terms of the notes do not. If we incur significantly more debt, this could intensify the risks described above. In addition, if we are unable to obtain financing to fund additional capital expenditures, acquisitions, and general corporate and other purposes on reasonable terms, or at all, then our business, operations and financial condition may be harmed.
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Because we currently do not intend to pay dividends, stockholders will benefit from an investment in our common stock only if it appreciates in value.

We currently intend to retain our future earnings, if any, for use in the operation of our business and do not expect to pay any cash dividends in the foreseeable future on our common stock. As a result, the success of an investment in our common stock will depend upon any future appreciation in its value. There is no guarantee that our common stock will appreciate in value or even maintain the price at which stockholders have purchased their shares, and our stock price has been, and may continue to be, volatile, and your investment could lose value. See the risk factor titled “Our stock price has been, and may continue to be, volatile, and your investment could lose value” above.

Provisions of our charter, by-laws and Delaware law may have anti-takeover effects that could prevent a change in control even if the change in control would be beneficial to our stockholders.

Provisions of our charter, by-laws and Delaware law could make it more difficult for a third party to control or acquire us, even if doing so would be beneficial to our stockholders. For example our board of directors has the right to elect directors to fill a vacancy created by the expansion of the board of directors or the resignation, death or removal of a director; stockholders must provide advance notice, additional disclosures and representations and warranties to nominate individuals for election to the board of directors or to propose matters that can be acted upon at a stockholders' meeting; and our board of directors can issue, without stockholder approval, shares of undesignated preferred stock.

As a Delaware corporation, we are also subject to certain Delaware anti-takeover provisions. Under Delaware law, a corporation may not engage in a business combination with any holder of 15% or more of its capital stock unless the holder has held the stock for three years or, among other things, the board of directors has approved the transaction. Our board of directors could rely on Delaware law to prevent or delay an acquisition of us.

If we fail to maintain an effective system of internal controls, we may not be able to accurately report our financial results or prevent fraud. As a result, our stockholders could lose confidence in our financial reporting, which could harm our business and the trading price of our common stock.

Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires, among other things, that we maintain effective disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting. We must continue to enhance and maintain our processes and systems and adapt them as our business evolves, including as we expand into new markets, increase reliance on channel partners, complete acquisitions and we rearrange management responsibilities. This continuous process of maintaining and adapting our internal controls and complying with Section 404 is expensive, time-consuming and requires significant management attention, and as our business changes our internal controls may become more complex and require additional resources to remain effective. In the past, we identified, and subsequently remediated, a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting; however, we cannot be certain that our internal control measures will provide adequate control over our financial processes and reporting or ensure compliance with Section 404, and we may identify additional material weaknesses in internal controls in the future. Failure to develop or maintain effective controls, or difficulties encountered in their implementation or improvement, or the identification of additional material weaknesses—by us or by our independent registered public accounting firm—could harm our operating results, result in a restatement of prior-period financial statements, cause us to fail to meet our reporting obligations, and adversely affect the results of periodic management evaluations and annual independent registered public accounting firm attestation reports regarding the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting that we are required to include in the periodic reports we will file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Furthermore, if we or our independent registered public accounting firm identify any material weaknesses, the disclosure of that fact, even if quickly remediated, could reduce the market's confidence in our financial statements and harm our stock price.

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Item 2. Unregistered Sales of Equity Securities and Use of Proceeds

(c) Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities
 

Period (1)
(a) Total Number of Shares Purchased (2)
(b) Average Price Paid per Share (3)
(c) Total Number of Shares Purchased as Part of Publicly Announced Plans or Programs (4)
(d) Approximate Dollar Value of Shares that May Yet be Purchased Under Plans or Programs (4)

January 1, 2026 – January 31, 2026 —  $ —  —  $ 1,180,514 
February 1, 2026 – February 28, 2026 325,799  99.67  325,799  1,148,042 
March 1, 2026 – March 31, 2026 1,626,343  106.63  1,626,343  974,628 
Total 1,952,142  $ 105.47  1,952,142 

(1) Information is based on settlement dates of repurchase transactions.
(2) Consists of shares of our common stock, par value $0.01 per share.
(3) Includes commissions paid, but excludes any estimated excise taxes payable on share repurchases.
(4) Effective May 2024, our board of directors authorized a $2.0 billion share repurchase program through June 2027.

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Item 5. Other Information

(c) Director and Officer Trading Arrangements

The following table describes, for the quarterly period covered by this report, each trading arrangement for the sale or purchase of Company securities adopted, terminated or for which the amount, pricing or timing provisions were modified by our directors and officers that is either (1) a contract, instruction or written plan intended to satisfy the affirmative defense conditions of Rule 10b5-1(c) (a “Rule 10b5-1 trading arrangement”) or (2) a “non-Rule 10b5-1 trading arrangement” (as defined in Item 408(c) of Regulation S-K):

Name (Title) Action Taken (Date of Action) Type of Trading Arrangement Nature of Trading Arrangement Duration of Trading Arrangement Aggregate Number of Securities to be Purchased or Sold
Adam Karon ( Chief Operating Officer and General Manager of the Cloud Technology Group )
Termination ( March 3, 2026 ) (1)
Rule 10b5-1 trading arrangement
Sales
(1)
(1)

Paul C. Joseph ( EVP, Global Sales and Services )
Adoption ( March 4, 2026 )
Rule 10b5-1 trading arrangement Sales Until March 17, 2027 , or such earlier date upon which all transactions are completed or expire without execution
Up to 15,500 shares of common stock

Kimberly Salem-Jackson ( EVP, Chief Marketing Officer )
Adoption ( March 10, 2026 )
Rule 10b5-1 trading arrangement Sales Until November 30, 2026 , or such earlier date upon which all transactions are completed or expire without execution
Up to 4,313 shares of common stock

Robert Blumofe ( EVP, Chief Technology Officer )
Adoption ( March 13, 2026 )
Rule 10b5-1 trading arrangement Sales Until March 5, 2027 , or such earlier date upon which all transactions are completed or expire without execution
Up to 20,243 shares of common stock

(1) On March 3, 2026, Adam Karon terminated a Rule 10b5-1 trading arrangement that was previously adopted on August 22, 2025. For additional details about the material terms of this arrangement, refer to the description under the heading “ (c) Director and Officer Trading Arrangements ” contained in Part II, Item 5. Other Information of our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2025, which is incorporated herein by reference.

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Item 6. Exhibits

Exhibit 3.1
Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation of Akamai Technologies , Inc. (including all amendments thereto) (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 3.1 to the C ompany's Current Report on Form 8-K filed on May 16, 202 5)

Exhibit 3.2
A mended and Restated By-Laws of Akamai Technol o g ies, Inc. (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 3.1 to the C o mpany's Current Report on Form 8-K filed on September 12, 202 5)

Exhibit 10.1#
F orm of Ex e cutive Bonus Plan (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 99.1 to the Company's Current Report on Form 8-K filed on February 17, 2026)

Exhibit 31.1*
   Certification of Chief Executive Officer pursuant to Rule 13a-14(a)/ Rule 15d-14(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended

Exhibit 31.2*
   Certification of Chief Financial Officer pursuant to Rule 13a-14(a)/ Rule 15d-14(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended

Exhibit 32.1*
   Certification of Chief Executive Officer pursuant to 18 U.S.C. Section 1350, as adopted pursuant to Section 906 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002

Exhibit 32.2*
   Certification of Chief Financial Officer pursuant to 18 U.S.C. Section 1350, as adopted pursuant to Section 906 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002

101.INS*
   Inline XBRL Instance Document – The instance document does not appear in the interactive data file because its XBRL tags are embedded within the inline XBRL document

101.SCH*
   Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Schema Document

101.CAL*
   Inline XBRL Taxonomy Calculation Linkbase Document

101.DEF*
   Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Definition Linkbase Document

101.LAB*
   Inline XBRL Taxonomy Label Linkbase Document

101.PRE*
   Inline XBRL Taxonomy Presentation Linkbase Document

104 Cover Page Interactive Data File (formatted as inline XBRL and contained in Exhibit 101.INS)

* Submitted electronically herewith
#
Management contract or compensatory plan, contract or arrangement

Attached as Exhibit 101 to this report are the following formatted in XBRL (Extensible Business Reporting Language): (i) Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets at March 31, 2026 and December 31, 2025, (ii) Condensed Consolidated Statements of Income for the three months ended March 31, 2026 and 2025, (iii) Condensed Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Income for the three months ended March 31, 2026 and 2025, (iv) Condensed Consolidated Statements of Stockholders' Equity for the three months ended March 31, 2026 and 2025, (v) Condensed Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows for the three months ended March 31, 2026 and 2025 and (vi) Notes to Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements.
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SIGNATURES

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned thereunto duly authorized.
 
Akamai Technologies, Inc.

May 8, 2026 By: /s/ Edward McGowan

Edward McGowan
Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer (Principal Financial Officer)

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