Cloudflare Inc. has acquired Human Native, a U.K.-based artificial intelligence (AI) data marketplace, as the internet infrastructure giant proceeds with plans to reshape how content creators are compensated in the age of AI.
The deal, whose financial terms were not disclosed, will help Cloudflare develop tools that connect AI developers with content creators through what Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince describes as “fair and transparent channels.” The acquisition represents what Prince has called Cloudflare’s “fourth act”: Protecting the economic model of the open internet as AI technology reshapes content consumption.
“Content creators deserve full control over their work, whether they want to write for humans or optimize for AI,” Prince said in a statement. “This acquisition is about building the tools needed to protect the longevity of the open internet.”
Startup Human Native operates a marketplace that connects publishers, creators, and rights holders with companies training AI systems. The startup’s platform addresses a growing concern in the AI industry, that of the unauthorized use of creative content in training large language models (LLMs).
The company helps content owners prepare their material for AI use by indexing, cleaning and structuring text, audio, video and other media. The process transforms unstructured content into AI-ready data that can be legally licensed and purchased, eliminating the legal uncertainty associated with web scraping and avoiding the need for case-by-case licensing negotiations.
For AI developers, Human Native’s marketplace offers a catalog of licensed, high-quality content that meets technical and legal requirements while reducing copyright and intellectual property risks. Content owners, meanwhile, gain a structured way to price and monetize their work for AI applications.
The acquisition builds on Cloudflare’s August 2024 launch of AI Crawl Control, a product that allows website operators to restrict or monetize AI bots that gather training data from across the web. Prince told CNBC last summer that reshaping content monetization would become a central mission for the company.
“Last year we gave publishers and creators the tools to control which bots can access their content, but the real goal has always been to help create a new economic model that actually works for the next phase of the internet,” Prince said then.
Human Native had raised $3.56 million over two funding rounds from investors including LocalGlobe Management and Mercuri, according to Tracxn data.
Cloudflare’s stock has benefited from AI-related demand for its cybersecurity products, rising more than 60% over the past year.
