Cloudflare’s 2026 Annual Founders’ Letter

Cloudflare marks its 16th anniversary by acknowledging rapid internet changes driven by AI, which has accelerated web growth and enabled non-coders to launch projects via "vibe coding" tools. The company notes that over 7 million developers now build on its platform, with AI tools increasingly deployed there. While AI has democratized creation, it has also introduced risks, including disproportionate load on websites from automated agents that may not benefit the sites they crawl.

The letter highlights a shift in internet traffic, where automated agents are expected to surpass human traffic by May 2026—five years ahead of earlier forecasts. These agents can efficiently perform tasks like comparing prices or finding services, but their unchecked activity risks overloading smaller sites without compensation. Cloudflare warns this could disadvantage new businesses, as agents may favor established players with more data, potentially consolidating commerce and stifling competition.

To address these challenges, Cloudflare introduces measures to reduce unnecessary bot traffic by prioritizing fresh content during crawls, cutting load on sites by over half for unchanged pages. The company also launches a system to compensate creators when agents use their content or applications. These steps aim to protect smaller businesses and new entrants, ensuring they can compete in an AI-driven internet where agents dominate discovery and commerce.

The letter emphasizes Cloudflare’s mission to build a better internet collaboratively, announcing partnerships with like-minded organizations. It underscores the need for an internet that supports new creators, local businesses, and future innovators like Cloudflare itself, which began as a scrappy startup. The company’s tools and partnerships seek to balance AI’s benefits with fair practices, preventing a future dominated by a few large players.