Cloudflare is trying to make its network the control layer for more internet and AI traffic, not sell one more point product. Its CDN already sits close to users and applications on a global edge, a natural place to add security, Zero Trust, developer compute and AI controls such as Workers AI. Q1 2026 supports this: revenue up 33.5%, $2.54B of RPO and 118% net retention. The case holds if consolidation keeps showing up in adoption; the main risks are valuation and execution. x.comÂ