New York, February 20, 2026, 16:41 (EST) — After-hours
- Akamai shares slid about 14% after the cloud-security firm warned rising memory costs would weigh on near-term profit.
- The broader market ended higher after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling struck down President Donald Trump’s global tariffs.
- Investors now look to next week’s Nvidia results for clues on AI infrastructure spending and knock-on costs.
Akamai Technologies shares slid about 14% and were last around $94 in after-hours trading on Friday, extending a steep selloff sparked by a softer-than-expected profit outlook from the cloud and cybersecurity firm.
The drop matters because it points to a new pressure point in the AI boom: the parts bill. Memory, a basic building block in servers, is getting more expensive as data centers expand, and companies that rent computing capacity can’t always pass costs through quickly.
It is also a reminder that “AI” is not one trade. Chipmakers can ride the spending wave; service providers can get stuck explaining margin math.
On Thursday, Akamai forecast first-quarter adjusted profit — excluding one-time items — of $1.50 to $1.67 per share, below analysts’ average estimate of $1.75, according to data compiled by LSEG. Chief executive Tom Leighton told Reuters the cost of memory has “probably doubled” and Akamai may need to raise prices, while being “very careful” in how it does so. (Reuters)
The company paired the weaker quarterly profit view with a stronger revenue outlook for 2026, projecting $4.40 billion to $4.55 billion. It also beat Wall Street expectations for the fourth quarter, with revenue of $1.10 billion and adjusted earnings of $1.84 per share.
Akamai has been leaning into security and compute products as enterprises shift more workloads online and try to lock down applications and web infrastructure. The market’s message on Friday was blunt: growth is fine, but costs are driving the conversation.
Elsewhere, U.S. stocks finished higher after the Supreme Court struck down Trump’s global tariffs, with the S&P 500 up 0.69%, the Nasdaq up 0.90% and the Dow up 0.47%. “Today is a removal of some uncertainty, and we’re on to the next phase,” said Mike Dickson, head of research and quantitative strategies at Horizon Investments. (Reuters)
Still, the Akamai move showed how quickly company guidance can cut through a positive tape, especially in tech. Investors have been jumpy about AI-linked names and what they are getting back for the spending.
The risk for Akamai is straightforward: if memory stays expensive and customers resist price hikes, margins can get squeezed even as demand holds up. A softer turn in enterprise IT budgets would make that squeeze harder to manage.
The next big check-in for the AI ecosystem comes on Wednesday, Feb. 25, when Nvidia reports. Marta Norton, chief investment strategist at Empower, said hyperscalers are set to ramp capital spending, but added it can be “hard for Nvidia to surprise when everyone expects it to surprise.” Earnings from Salesforce, Intuit and Dell, along with Trump’s State of the Union address on Tuesday, are also on traders’ calendars. (Reuters)
