Cloudflare stock surges 10% as AI agents fuel networking and security demand

Cloudflare pops 10% as AI agent wave led by viral Moltbot boosts security demand

Cloudflare's stock rallied 10% Wednesday after the company beat Wall Street's fourth-quarter estimates and issued upbeat guidance as artificial intelligence adoption fuels demand for its networking and security tools. In an earnings call with analysts Tuesday, CEO Matthew Prince said the rise of AI and agentic tools that can carry out tasks on a user's behalf has driven more demand to Cloudflare's networking and security offerings Prince said the company is seeing a boost from a so-called "fundamental re-platforming" of the Internet. "If AI agents are the new users of the internet, Cloudflare is the platform they run on and the network they pass through," he said. "This creates a virtuous flywheel." The global networking and cloud provider reported adjusted earnings of 28 cents per share on $615 million in revenue. That topped the 27 cents per share and $591 million in revenue expected by analysts polled by LSEG. Revenue jumped 34% from a year ago.

Cloudflare earnings beat boosts stock on AI growth story

A growth stock rally always looks like math from a distance and psychology up close. Cloudflare's earnings report landed, the stock ripped, and upgrades arrived in a tidy cluster, as if Wall Street had been waiting for a single clean moment to agree on what Cloudflare is worth in an AI-shaped internet. That "moment" came with a familiar set of receipts: fourth-quarter revenue of $614.5 million (up about 34% year over year) and a 2026 revenue outlook (of $2.79 billion to $2.80 billion) that came in ahead of expectations, which is the fastest way to turn "maybe slowing" into "reaccelerating" in the market's group chat. But what seemed to really juice the reaction was the enterprise signal: Cloudflare highlighted a record annual contract value deal (averaging $42.5 million per year) and said total new ACV grew nearly 50% year over year -- the kind of detail that makes "internet plumbing" sound like a toll road, not a commodity. The stock jumped about 10% in Wednesday morning trading. You can feel the market's tension in the timing. Cloudflare entered earnings with a stock that had already been acting like an idea: the "AI picks-and-shovels" trade migrating from chips into the plumbing of the web. Earnings gave the idea a quarterly stamp, and the stock's post-print move turned that stamp into a parade. Cloudflare's AI narrative right now is essentially the "agentic" internet -- the idea that the next big wave of web traffic won't be humans doomscrolling, but software talking to software: bots, agents, automated queries, and machine-to-machine work that still needs to be routed, secured, and accelerated. Cloudflare's pitch is that it already sits in the stream of that traffic, selling the shovels -- and the company is increasingly charging like it knows it. In an AI-agent world, the web gets busier in a different way: more machine-to-machine requests, more automated scraping and retrieval, more software acting like a user. Some analysts have framed Cloudflare as the control layer for that non-human traffic at scale, and the company's commentary leaned hard in that same direction. Management tied demand to the rise of AI agents and automated traffic -- software browsing, querying, buying, scraping, and working on behalf of humans. If that's where the web is headed, Cloudflare looks like a control layer: routing, security, and performance for a messier, more machine-driven internet. Investors didn't react like they'd heard a guidance tweak. They reacted like they'd been handed a fresh way to justify a premium multiple: Cloudflare as critical infrastructure for an automated web, with the pricing power to match. The broader choreography was familiar: targets rising, optimism tightening, and the herd trying not to be the last one explaining why it missed the re-rate. Barclays raised its target to $250 and stayed Overweight. RBC Capital Markets nudged its target to $240 while keeping Outperform. TD Cowen reiterated Buy with a $265 target. KeyBanc Capital Markets reiterated Overweight and pointed to a $300 target. Citizens Financial Group held Market Outperform at $270. UBS lifted its target to $220 with a Neutral rating. Piper Sandler raised its target to $222 and stayed Neutral. Cantor Fitzgerald kept Neutral at $224. That's an "across-the-board" step forward that gave bulls confidence to press the case; Cloudflare could be well-positioned if AI-driven traffic becomes a structural feature of the web rather than a novelty. Still, even in a celebration quarter, the market kept one eyebrow raised. Cloudflare told investors to expect more sales than they'd penciled in, then asked them to be a little less greedy on profit -- a sign the company still plans to spend into the moment, not harvest it all at once, which is fine until it isn't. And a November outage that rattled customer confidence still hangs over the story, an inconvenient footnote when you're asking investors to treat your network as critical infrastructure for a more automated internet. A rally that only attracts cheerleaders tends to be short-lived. Morgan Stanley $MS kept an Overweight rating while trimming its target to $245. Scotiabank cut to $225 and kept Sector Perform. Jefferies lifted its target to $225 and kept Hold. Guggenheim Securities raised its target to $140 and kept Sell. That spread is the story in miniature: fewer debates about whether Cloudflare is "real," more debate about how much of the future the stock already pulled into the present. Cloudflare delivered a quarter that made the AI-infrastructure story easier for big money to own -- and easier for analysts to defend on paper. The upgrades were the chorus, but the real hook was the market deciding, for at least one clean moment, that Cloudflare stopped being "a pricey security name" and started being priced like a control layer for whatever the internet becomes when more of its users are machine -- that Cloudflare belongs on the short list of companies that get paid when the internet's next users arrive, and they happen to be bots.

Cloudflare stock (NET) surges on strong outlook - how AI agents are driving Cloudflare's growth?

AI agents driving Cloudflare growth: Cloudflare's strong Q4 earnings and optimistic future outlook have sent its stock soaring. The company is experiencing a surge in demand, driven by the rapid adoption of AI agents. These intelligent systems are increasingly relying on Cloudflare's robust network and security infrastructure, positioning the company as a foundational platform for the evolving internet. AI agents driving Cloudflare growth: Cloudflare's latest earnings didn't just beat expectations, it reinforced a bigger shift happening across the internet. The company's stock climbed after it reported fourth-quarter results that topped Wall Street estimates and issued stronger-than-expected guidance. Cloudflare reported adjusted earnings of 28 cents per share on $615 million in revenue, as per a report. Analysts polled by LSEG had expected 27 cents per share on $591 million in revenue. On the earnings call, CEO and co-founder Matthew Prince pointed to what he described as a "fundamental re-platforming" of the internet, as per a CNBC report. He said the rapid rise of AI tools, especially agentic systems that can carry out tasks on behalf of users, is increasing demand for Cloudflare's networking and security services. Prince said, "If AI agents are the new users of the internet, Cloudflare is the platform they run on and the network they pass through," adding, "This creates a virtuous flywheel," as quoted by CNBC. As more developers build AI agents, those systems require fast, secure infrastructure to operate. That plays directly into Cloudflare's strengths in networking, edge infrastructure and security. The company finished 2025 with 4.5 million active human developers, a figure Prince highlighted as evidence of growing engagement with its platform. Also read: IRS crypto tax explained: IRS says Bitcoin (BTC USD), NFTs and Stablecoin income is taxable - here's what traders need to know Cloudflare also raised its outlook. For the first quarter, it expects revenue between $620 million and $621 million, ahead of the $614 million analysts had forecast. For the full year, the company projected revenue of $2.79 billion to $2.80 billion, above the $2.74 billion estimate. Those projections helped extend the rally, as investors interpreted the guidance as a sign that AI-related demand is not just a short-term boost. Part of the recent excitement around Cloudflare traces back to Moltbot, an open-source AI assistant built on Anthropic's Claude model. When Moltbot went viral last month, Cloudflare's infrastructure supported it, showcasing how its edge platform can handle AI workloads. The company then launched Moltworker, a platform designed specifically to run Moltbot securely. Also read: Is El Paso airport closed for 10 days? Why FAA lifts airspace shutdown after flights grounded over Mexican cartel drone threat Analysts at RBC Capital Markets noted last month that the "continued proliferation of AI agents benefits Cloudflare and its Workers platform as AI agents require low-latency, secure inferencing that often scales up and scales down and is close to the user or 'edge' of the network," as quoted by CNBC. TD Cowen maintained a Buy rating and raised its price target to $265, citing AI-driven growth, as per a Cryptopolitan report. KeyBanc kept its Overweight rating with a $300 target, noting that Cloudflare beat fourth-quarter expectations by $24 million. Citizens also maintained a Market Outperform rating and set a $270 target, pointing to stronger sales and Prince's leadership. Why did Cloudflare's stock rise? It beat fourth-quarter earnings estimates and gave stronger-than-expected revenue guidance. How much revenue did Cloudflare report? The company reported $615 million in revenue.

Cloudflare raises its forecasts on AI momentum

For 2026, Cloudflare forecasts revenue of between $2.79bn and $2.80bn, above the $2.74bn consensus according to LSEG. The group expects Q1 sales of $620m to $621m, beating expectations of $613.9m. The company is banking on an acceleration in investment in the digital infrastructure needed to develop AI. Cloudflare said the rise of AI agents and new applications based on the technology is lifting demand across its suite of services. The group highlighted solutions that securely route traffic to personal computers, enabling remote control without compromising network security. CEO Matthew Prince said that the shift represents a structural transformation of the internet that benefits the company. The announcements follow an outage in November that disrupted access to several major platforms. In Q4 ended in December, revenue rose 33.6% y-o-y to $614.5m, beating expectations of $591.3m. Its net loss narrowed slightly to $12.1m, from $12.8m a year earlier. YTD, the stock is down a little over 8%, after rising over 83% in 2025.