Cloudflare expands into AI data marketplace space
Cloudflare announced on Thursday that it has acquired Human Native, a London-based AI data marketplace. The move represents Cloudflare’s entry into the AI data infrastructure space, with a particular focus on helping content creators monetize their work in the generative AI economy.
Matthew Prince, Cloudflare’s co-founder, explained the thinking behind the acquisition. “Content creators deserve full control over their work, whether they want to write for humans or optimize for AI,” he said. I think this gets at something important—there’s been a lot of tension around how AI companies use content without proper compensation.
Building tools for fair data transactions
The acquisition will focus on developing tools that let AI developers discover, access, and purchase high-quality data through transparent channels. At the same time, the tools will help creators convert and monetize their content effectively.
Human Native’s expertise will be used to build systems that allow for fair pricing and transparent transaction channels. Prince added that this approach promotes a sustainable open Internet model. It’s interesting to see Cloudflare moving in this direction—they’ve traditionally been more focused on infrastructure and security.
Human Native’s background and vision
Human Native started in 2024 with the goal of creating infrastructure for a fair AI economy. The company wanted to help developers responsibly source high-quality data while enabling rights holders to participate in the AI industry with proper compensation.
Dr. James Smith, co-founder of Human Native, put it this way: “We started Human Native with the goal of getting Generative AI out of its Napster era. We believe that creators should have control, compensation, and credit when their work is used to power AI products.” That Napster comparison is pretty telling—it suggests they see current AI data practices as similarly problematic.
The company previously secured £2.8 million in seed funding from LocalGlobe and Mercuri. Their team includes veterans from DeepMind, Google, Figma, and Bloomberg, which perhaps explains their focus on both technical infrastructure and creator rights.
What this means for the AI ecosystem
This acquisition comes at a time when there’s increasing scrutiny around how AI companies source their training data. Several lawsuits have been filed by content creators and publishers alleging unauthorized use of their work.
Cloudflare’s move could signal a shift toward more formalized data marketplaces. The idea is to create a system where everyone knows what’s being used and who’s getting paid. Whether this model will gain traction remains to be seen, but it addresses a real pain point in the industry.
I’m curious how this will integrate with Cloudflare’s existing services. They have a massive network and significant developer reach, which could help accelerate adoption of these data marketplace tools. But building trust with both creators and AI developers will be crucial—they’ll need to demonstrate that the system actually works fairly for everyone involved.
It’s worth watching how this develops. The generative AI space is still figuring out its relationship with content creators, and solutions like this could become important infrastructure if they work as intended.
