Cloudflare Stock Jumps 16% as Growth Reaccelerates

The global edge computing market is projected to grow from $45.14 billion in 2025 to $65.02 billion in 2026, a compound annual growth rate of 44%, and to reach $273.73 billion by 2030 at a CAGR of 43.2%, according to the Edge Computing Market Report 2026 added to ResearchAndMarkets.com. Growth drivers include autonomous vehicles, 5G network deployment, industrial automation, real-time analytics and data localization requirements, while rising IoT adoption is a major contributor; IoT Analytics reported in October 2025 that connected IoT devices were expected to rise 14% during 2025 and reach 39 billion by 2030. In November 2025, Cisco Systems Inc. launched the Cisco Unified Edge platform for low-latency agentic and physical AI workloads, and in August 2025 Acumera Inc. acquired Scale Computing Inc. for an undisclosed amount to combine secure edge networking with virtualization and AI-ready infrastructure. North America was the largest region in 2025, while Asia-Pacific is expected to record the fastest growth. The report profiles companies including Microsoft Corporation, Amazon Web Services Inc, Dell Inc, Siemens AG, Lenovo Group Limited, Intel Corporation, International Business Machines Corporation, Cisco Systems Inc, Schneider Electric, Google Cloud, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, NVIDIA Corporation, Eaton Corporation plc, WINSYSTEMS Inc, Rockwell Automation, Super Micro Computer Inc, Advantech Co Ltd, ADLINK Technology Inc, Stratus Technologies, Scale Computing, Foghorn Consulting, ClearBlade and GE Digital.

Netcracker Technology announced it received the 2026 TM Forum Open Innovation Catalyst award during DTW Ignite for a project showcasing the role communications service providers can play in the Physical AI market. The award recognizes collaboration among Netcracker, AT&T, China Mobile, OmanTel and Red Hat. The Catalyst project, titled Robotic Dog: AI at the Edge, Sustainable Revenue at Scale, demonstrated a visually impaired user being guided safely through indoor and outdoor environments using real-time sensing, obstacle avoidance, voice interaction, route planning and edge-assisted perception. Netcracker said its AI-native BSS/OSS platform delivered autonomous multi-domain operations, managed complex multi-partner workloads and scaled flexible B2B2X business models, combining 5G, Edge AI-as-a-Service, service assurance, B2B2X monetization and partner orchestration. Aaron Boasman-Patel, Vice President of Innovation at TM Forum, said the judging panel was especially impressed with seeing Physical AI in action in such a meaningful use case, while Netcracker Chief Technology Officer Bob Titus said the company is proud to be recognized as operators move beyond connectivity to become trusted enablers of Physical AI.

Akamai Technologies announced an approximately $11.6 billion agreement supporting Anthropic's central processing unit workloads, a deal that also provides for a potential additional $9 billion in business beyond the initial commitment. On Mad Money, Jim Cramer said the seven-year contractual commitment works out to $1.66 billion per year, more than a third of what Akamai is expected to bring in this year, though the annual figure is a simple average and Akamai's filing specifies separate seven-year project terms beginning on their respective service start dates, with payments subject to delivery and availability requirements. Akamai estimates approximately $5.5 billion in capital expenditures related to the Anthropic commitment, including an additional approximately $1.7 billion in 2026, and left its 2026 revenue guidance unchanged while issuing an Anthropic warrant covering up to approximately 5% of its outstanding common stock. In the second quarter, Akamai's cloud infrastructure services revenue rose 39% year over year to approximately $99 million and security revenue rose 10% to approximately $604 million, helping total revenue grow 5% to approximately $1.1 billion, while delivery and other cloud applications revenue declined 6% and adjusted earnings per share fell 8% to $1.59. Cramer, who highlighted Akamai's distributed Akamai Inference Cloud initiative and its edge computing approach, said the stock's retreat after the announcement felt like a buying opportunity, noting it trades at approximately 16.6x forward earnings, below Fastly's approximately 48x multiple.

Cloudflare has entered a strategic partnership with Deutsche Telekom under which the German carrier will add Cloudflare's security and connectivity solutions to its enterprise portfolio and the two companies will directly connect their networks. Deutsche Telekom will also train and certify its professionals on the Cloudflare platform through T-Systems, giving customers support for consulting, implementation and managed security services. The deal covers protection of applications, networks and data as well as AI workloads, and the companies plan to work on digital resilience and sovereignty in Europe, including protection of critical data and infrastructure and the use of post-quantum cryptography. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Cloudflare's 2026 and 2027 revenues indicates year-over-year growth of 32.5% and 28.6%, respectively. Cloudflare shares have jumped 77% in the year-to-date period compared with the Zacks Internet – Software industry's return of 9.9%, and the stock trades at a forward price-to-sales ratio of 35.28 versus the industry's average of 4.42.

Akamai announced that SoftServe, an AI and technology services company with expertise in data and cloud solutions, has joined the Akamai Partner Connect program. The partnership is aimed at helping enterprises optimize multicloud environments, lower infrastructure costs, and accelerate edge AI deployments. SoftServe's offerings under the program include cloud strategy support to optimize compute resources and budget for long-term growth, custom-built small and large language models and AI inferencing optimized for distributed infrastructure and GPU networks, and advisory and development services for deep and emerging technologies. The collaboration provides AI consulting, digital modernization, and specialized managed services to customers in verticals including high tech, healthcare, financial services, and industrial and manufacturing. SoftServe Vice President of Technology Olga Salaichuk said the partnership handles complex back-end tasks so client teams can focus on building, while Akamai Senior Vice President of Global Cloud Sales Parimal Pandya said SoftServe's AI expertise combined with Akamai's global scale builds a foundation for customers' biggest projects. Akamai and SoftServe are exhibiting at NVIDIA GTC Berlin 2026, October 20 to 22, at booths 3064 and 7028, respectively.

Cloudflare announced on September 15 a new Accountable designation for AI crawling alongside the launch of Disallow AI Training, a tool letting website owners block AI models from scraping their content for training while keeping it fully indexable in traditional search results. The company set compliance criteria for crawler operators, and major tech players including Apple, Google, and Microsoft have achieved or committed to the Accountable framework, while mixed-use crawlers that fail to comply face network-level blocks when a site owner enables the training block. Cloudflare reported Q2 2026 total revenue of $696.1 million, up 36% year-over-year, with a 120% net retention rate, operating cash flow of $117.6 million, free cash flow of $56.4 million, and $4.16 billion in cash, cash equivalents, and available-for-sale securities. Management guided Q3 2026 revenue to between $736 million and $737 million and full-year 2026 revenue to $2.864 billion to $2.870 billion. The company's Q2 2026 GAAP gross margin slipped to 71.8% from 74.9% a year earlier, and its GAAP operating loss widened to $205.7 million, or 29.6% of revenue, from $67.3 million, with a GAAP net loss of $170.0 million, or $0.48 per share.