• On August 13, 2025, Aptum announced a new partnership with Akamai Technologies to deliver cloud migration and transformation services, while Akamai also revealed a collaboration with Aqua Security to bolster AI-powered cloud security for enterprise customers.
• These recent deals signal Akamai’s growing efforts to accelerate innovation in cloud and AI security, aligning its platform with evolving enterprise technology priorities.
• We’ll examine how Akamai’s expanded cloud services partnerships may influence its investment narrative and future growth outlook.

Explore 23 top quantum computing companies leading the revolution in next-gen technology and shaping the future with breakthroughs in quantum algorithms, superconducting qubits, and cutting-edge research.

Akamai Technologies Investment Narrative Recap

To be comfortable owning Akamai Technologies, investors must believe the company can offset secular declines in its legacy delivery business by scaling its cloud, compute, and security offerings quickly enough to drive sustained revenue and profit growth. The recent partnerships with Aptum and Aqua Security underscore Akamai’s intent to align its platform with rising AI and security demands, but they do not yet materially alter the short-term catalyst of accelerating cloud revenue or reduce the main risk of margin pressure from capital-intense expansion.

Among the latest developments, Akamai’s August 13 announcement with Aptum stands out, as it connects directly to the ongoing catalyst of expanding Cloud Infrastructure Services (CIS) revenue. By partnering to offer integrated cloud migration services, Akamai aims to deepen enterprise adoption of its cloud platform, which is essential for driving the top-line growth expected as part of its transformation story.

Yet, investors should not overlook that increasing capital expenditures to support these new cloud and AI initiatives could pressure net margins if scaling proves slower or costlier than anticipated…

Read the full narrative on Akamai Technologies (it’s free!)

Akamai Technologies’ narrative projects $4.9 billion in revenue and $765.1 million in earnings by 2028. This requires 6.1% yearly revenue growth and a $340.5 million earnings increase from $424.6 million currently.

Uncover how Akamai Technologies’ forecasts yield a $95.20 fair value, a 20% upside to its current price.

Exploring Other Perspectives

Six members of the Simply Wall St Community estimate Akamai’s fair value between US$50.32 and US$131.10 per share. While bullish cloud catalysts are top of mind, many investors continue to weigh margin and profitability risks before setting expectations for the company’s path forward.

Explore 6 other fair value estimates on Akamai Technologies – why the stock might be worth as much as 66% more than the current price!

Build Your Own Akamai Technologies Narrative

Disagree with existing narratives? Create your own in under 3 minutes – extraordinary investment returns rarely come from following the herd.

Contemplating Other Strategies?

Don’t miss your shot at the next 10-bagger. Our latest stock picks just dropped:

This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data
and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your
financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data.
Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.
Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team@simplywallst.com

Billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban has shared his views on teens are prioritising financial management. Cuban says that US teens are placing unprecedented importance on financial success and he feels that the shift is not only understandable but its full of opportunity. As per the data from John Burns Research and Consulting, shared by Blue Rose Research’s David Shor, 36% of American 12th graders in 2022 said money is “extremely important” to them—the highest percentage in over five decades. That’s a sharp rise from the 26% average seen through the early 2010s.

Gen Z’s money mindset

The reasons behind the financial focus are clear: stagnant wages, increasing college costs, inflation and the and the constant stream of wealth-centric content on platforms like TikTok and YouTube. Many of the Gen Z teens have grown up watching their families navigate economic hardship and now face their own financial pressures.“Zoomers care more about making money than any generation in at least 50 years,” Shor posted on Bluesky. Cuban responded, “Doesn’t surprise me. Every kid has people around them making money posting videos. Beats a newspaper route!”

Mark Cuban’s advice: Learn AI, teach AI, monetize AI

In an interview with CNBC, Cuban mentioned what he would do if he were 16 today: learn how to write prompts for AI tools like ChatGPT, teach others how to use them, and offer those skills to local businesses. “Doesn’t matter if I’m 16,” he said. “I’d be teaching them as well.”Cuban believes prompt engineering—crafting effective inputs for AI tools—is a high-value skill that can generate serious income, even six figures, without a college degree.

Books and bots over garbage bags

Reflecting on his own entrepreneurial beginnings selling garbage bags door-to-door at age 12, Cuban now urges teens to embrace digital tools. “Read books and learn how to use AI in every way, shape and form you can,” he posted on Bluesky. “It is a living library that gives you responses and can help no matter who you are or where you live.”Instead of selling physical products, Cuban says today’s youth can sell knowledge, skills, and content—often to a global audience.As Gen Z continues to redefine what it means to earn, Cuban’s message is clear: the internet and AI aren’t just tools—they’re gateways to financial independence, creativity, and a future where hustle meets innovation.

Microsoft‘s AI division has unveiled its first two homegrown artificial intelligence (AI) models: MAI-Voice-1 AI and MAI-1-preview. The company has been developing its own foundational AI technology, moving beyond its reliance on external partners like OpenAI.

What Microsoft’s MAI-Voice-1 and MAI-1-preview AI models do

According to the company, the new MAI-Voice-1 is a speech model capable of generating a minute of audio in under a second using just one GPU. Microsoft is already leveraging this model to power several of its features, including Copilot Daily, which has an AI host narrate top news stories, and for generating podcast-style discussions to help explain various topics.“Voice is the interface of the future for AI companions and MAI-Voice-1 delivers high-fidelity, expressive audio across both single and multi-speaker scenarios,” Microsoft said.In addition, Microsoft introduced MAI-1-preview, which was trained on 15,000 Nvidia H100 GPUs. The company describes this model as a “glimpse of future offerings inside Copilot,” designed for users who need an AI capable of following instructions and providing helpful responses to everyday queries. Microsoft plans to roll out MAI-1-preview for specific text use cases within the Copilot AI assistant, which currently relies on OpenAI’s large language models. The company has also begun publicly testing the model on the AI benchmarking platform LMArena.“We have big ambitions for where we go next. Not only will we pursue further advances here, but we believe that orchestrating a range of specialized models serving different user intents and use cases will unlock immense value,” the company said.Microsoft AI chief Mustafa Suleyman previously indicated the company’s focus would be on consumer-facing applications, not enterprise. “My logic is that we have to create something that works extremely well for the consumer and really optimise for our use case… My focus is on building models that really work for the consumer companion,” he said in a past interview.