‘Humans will be a rounding error on the internet’ says Cloudflare exec
Cloudflare's chief financial officer Thomas Seifert has predicted that non-human, machine-generated internet traffic will grow to be 1,000 times greater than human traffic within five years, effectively making people's browsing a "rounding error" on the internet. He made the claim during Cloudflare's Q2 earnings call, noting the firm's own tracking already got an earlier forecast wrong: it had expected machine traffic to overtake human traffic in 2027, but this actually happened in May 2026. The trend, driven by AI systems, matters because it points to a rapidly changing internet where infrastructure providers like Cloudflare must adapt to handle vastly greater automated demand and associated security risks.
Seifert stressed that human traffic itself is not shrinking, but is simply being dwarfed by the pace of machine growth, and said this would require greater efficiency, which he suggested Cloudflare could provide. The company reported $696 million in quarterly revenue, up 36 percent year-on-year, though losses more than tripled to $205.7 million; investors were reassured by the growth and a record number of large customer sign-ups. CEO Matthew Prince also highlighted the firm's comparatively low capital expenditure, forecast at 14–15 percent of revenue (around $430 million), and used this to contrast Cloudflare's approach with rivals, arguing that hyperscalers sell underused server capacity while Cloudflare focuses on maximising output from existing equipment.
In short
- Cloudflare exec predicts machine traffic will be 1,000x human traffic in five years
- Machine traffic already overtook human traffic in May 2026
- Cloudflare posted $696m quarterly revenue, up 36%, but losses tripled
Steelman: both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
Machine traffic growth is a natural and beneficial evolution of internet infrastructure, driven by AI systems that ultimately improve services for human users. Companies like Cloudflare are adapting competently to these changing demands through better efficiency and greater computational capability, and human traffic continues to thrive alongside machine traffic rather than being displaced by it. This represents technological progress that enables innovation and better service delivery.
The case against
The rapid dominance of machine traffic raises substantial concerns about unchecked AI proliferation, energy consumption, and security risks that may not be adequately understood or managed. An internet where human activity becomes a rounding error suggests we are enabling machine-driven systems and concentrating infrastructure power in corporate hands without sufficient consideration of environmental impact, safety implications, or whether this serves broader societal interests beyond corporate profit.
Explained simply
Cloudflare provides services that help websites deliver content and manage online traffic. Its network sits between many websites and their visitors, so it can observe requests from people as well as automated programmes.
Automated traffic comes from software that visits websites without a person browsing each page. Search engines and other tools have long done this; the growth of AI systems is adding to the volume. More automated requests can mean greater demand on internet infrastructure and more security challenges.
Cloudflare is led by chief executive Matthew Prince, while Thomas Seifert is its chief financial officer. The shift matters to companies that run internet infrastructure because they may need to handle much more machine activity while keeping services efficient and secure.