Cloudflare lays off more than 1,100 people; CEO explains it's 'not a cost-cutting measure.'

Cloudflare has laid off more than 1,100 employees immediately. The CEO has stated that he hopes this will be a one-time occurrence.

Building for the future

On May 7, 2026, Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince and President Michelle Zatlin jointly published a blog post stating, 'We sent the following email to our global teams this afternoon.'

According to CEO Prince and others, the email informed Cloudflare of its decision to cut more than 1,100 jobs worldwide. Those affected will be laid off immediately and will receive compensation including full payment of their base salary until the end of 2026 and vesting rights to stock-based compensation. CEO Prince and others described the compensation as 'one of the best severance packages in the industry.'

Following this email, it appears that those affected received notification of the decision to both their personal and Cloudflare email addresses. CEO Prince stated, 'With this decision, we must say goodbye to colleagues who have made significant contributions to our mission and built Cloudflare into one of the world's most successful companies. I want to make it clear that this decision does not reflect the individual work or talents of those who are leaving.'

According to CEO Prince, the way of working at Cloudflare has fundamentally changed. They are no longer simply building and selling AI tools and platforms, but are actively using AI themselves, and their AI usage has increased by more than 600% in the last three months alone.

At first glance, it might appear that the company is replacing humans with AI to reduce internal costs, but CEO Prince has stated that 'today's measures are not about cost reduction.'

'This is not about evaluating individual performance, but about defining how Cloudflare operates and creates value as a world-leading high-growth company in the age of agent-based AI,' said CEO Prince. 'We don't want to do the same thing again in the near future. Taking decisive action now will protect the stability of the remaining team. Repeated small cuts or dragging out restructuring for several quarters would cause long-term emotional instability among employees. This is the right thing to do, the right thing to do, and it reflects the company values we will continue to build.'