Cloudflare Expands AI Capabilities with Acquisition of Human Native, Transforming Data Discovery and Monetization

Cloudflare (NYSE: NET), a global leader in internet infrastructure and security services, has acquired Human Native, a London-based AI data marketplace startup, as the internet infrastructure company deepens its push into AI-focused services and content monetization. While financial terms were not disclosed to the public, the acquisition underscores Cloudflare’s growing ambition to shape how AI systems legally access and pay for high-quality data. The strategic deal marks a significant step for Cloudflare as it deepens its presence within the  AI ecosystem by enhancing data accessibility and monetization capabilities.

Cloudflare, founded in 2009 and headquartered in San Francisco, is best known for its content delivery, security, and performance services, which now power a significant portion of global internet traffic. In recent years, the company has expanded beyond traditional CDN offerings into developer platforms, serverless compute, and AI infrastructure, making Human Native a strategic fit.

Founded in 2024 and headquartered in London, United Kingdom, Human Native built a platform that helps creators, publishers, and rights holders structure their content into AI-ready datasets that can be licensed to AI developers. The company positions itself as an alternative to large-scale web scraping, offering a marketplace where data can be discovered, priced, and used transparently. 

The UK-based startup operates an AI data marketplace that allows creators and publishers to structure unstructured content into AI-ready datasets, set licensing terms and pricing, and monetize content used for AI training and inference. For AI developers, Human Native's platform offers searchable, compliant datasets designed to reduce legal and ethical risk.

Why the deal matters

AI models run on data — and the way that data is sourced, licensed, and paid for is becoming one of the biggest unresolved issues in the AI economy. With this strategic acquisition, Cloudflare is positioning itself as a gatekeeper and marketplace operator in the AI data supply chain, offering an alternative to widespread web scraping that has fueled legal and regulatory scrutiny across the industry.

For the US tech firm, this is less about AI models — and more about controlling the infrastructure layer where data access decisions happen. This latest move pushes Cloudflare beyond performance and security into AI data economics.

Conclusion

Finally, this latest acquisition aligns with Cloudflare’s broader effort to redefine how content is consumed in the AI era. As generative AI models increasingly rely on large datasets for training and inference, questions around data ownership, licensing, and creator compensation have become central to the industry. Cloudflare’s latest move reflects a strategic bet on the future of AI data — one where transparency, fairness, and creator compensation are as important as performance and scale. With this strategic acquisition, Cloudflare strengthens its position in the AI ecosystem and challenges the industry to rethink how content creators and AI developers interact.