Cloudflare (NET.US) acquires data platform Human Native in an effort to end the AI "piracy era."

With investors weighing the acquisition of artificial intelligence (AI) data platform Human Native by network security company Cloudflare (NET.US), Cloudflare rebounded over 1% in pre-market trading on Friday following a 2.26% drop on Thursday. According to reports, the UK-based AI data platform Human Native was founded in 2024 and has received support from some of London's top venture capitalists. The company has collaborated with companies in the technology and media sectors, including Alphabet Inc. Class C (GOOGL.US) subsidiary DeepMind and Figma. In a statement, Cloudflare said that this acquisition will help the company further expand into the area of transaction services between AI developers and content creators. Cloudflare co-founder and CEO Matthew Prince stated, "Content creators should have full control over their work, whether they are creating for humans or for AI optimization. Last year, we provided tools for publishers and creators to control which Siasun Robot&Automation can access their content, but the ultimate goal has always been to help build a new economic model that truly works for the next phase of the internet. The Human Native team will help us accelerate the next stage of development, building tools that allow content to be discovered, priced, and purchased through transparent channels. This acquisition is aimed at building the tools needed to protect the long-term development of an open internet." In the summer of 2025, Cloudflare launched the "AI Crawler Control" product, which provides customers with a way to restrict AI crawlers on their websites or monetize them. "AI crawlers" are a colloquial term for programs that collect data from the internet for training large language models. Cloudflare's network security products have benefited from the AI boom, with the company's stock price increasing by over 60% in the past year. Human Native co-founder and CEO James Smith stated, "Our goal in founding Human Native was to move generative AI out of its 'piracy' era. We believe that when creators' work is used to drive AI products, they should have control, receive compensation, and be credited, ensuring fair compensation for rights holders and promoting responsible AI development. Our discussions with Cloudflare, from Matthew to the entire team, show that our values align closely and we share the same mission, and together we will have the opportunity to provide internet-scale solutions." It is worth noting that the financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed, and Cloudflare did not specify when the acquisition will be completed.