Akamai acquires serverless WebAssembly firm Fermyon to strengthen edge AI capabilities

The acquisition brings Fermyon’s WebAssembly-based serverless technology into Akamai’s global edge platform, enabling faster, more efficient edge-native applications as AI inference increasingly moves away from centralized data centers.

Akamai Technologies has announced the acquisition of Fermyon, a leading serverless WebAssembly (Wasm) company, in a move aimed at accelerating the development of edge-native applications as artificial intelligence workloads shift toward the network edge. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Boosting edge-native compute for AI era

Akamai said the integration of Fermyon’s cloud-native function-as-a-service (FaaS) technology with its globally distributed platform will enable enterprises to build and deploy lightweight, high-performance applications at lower costs compared to traditional cloud-native architectures.

“Fermyon's FaaS capabilities, combined with Akamai's cloud, will make it even easier for developers to innovate and execute lightweight code at the edge,” said Adam Karon, chief operating officer and general manager of Akamai’s Cloud Technology Group. He noted that the company’s ongoing expansion of compute from core data centers to the edge will give developers a broader set of cloud-native and serverless options.

Open-source expertise strengthens Akamai’s cloud vision

Fermyon has been a prominent contributor to the WebAssembly ecosystem and the open-source community. It maintains key CNCF projects such as Spin and SpinKube and is an active member of the Bytecode Alliance. Akamai confirmed it will continue supporting these initiatives following the acquisition.

As part of the transition, Fermyon’s employees — including co-founders Matt Butcher and Radu Matei — will join Akamai’s Cloud Technology Group. The team is expected to lead future open-source efforts and help develop the next generation of serverless technologies.

Integrating performance, security, and edge functions

Akamai plans to enhance its edge functions platform by tightly integrating Fermyon’s technologies with its performance and security offerings. The company believes this will make it easier for developers to build, deploy, and secure edge applications that surpass the speed and cost efficiency of traditional cloud-native workloads.

The company stated that the acquisition is not expected to materially impact its financial guidance for 2025.