Who Is Buying Cloudflare? Hedge Fund Activity in 2026

Cloudflare (NET) has evolved from a CDN provider into one of the most important infrastructure companies on the internet — powering security, performance, and increasingly, AI inference at the edge. With shares trading around $211, the stock has been a strong performer. But the real story is what's happening beneath the surface: hedge funds are overwhelmingly bullish on Cloudflare.

Our analysis of the latest SEC 13F filings reveals one of the strongest institutional buy signals we've seen across any stock this quarter.

NET Key Stats at a Glance

The numbers speak for themselves: 9 out of 15 tracked funds are buying Cloudflare — a 60% buy rate that's among the highest we track. Only 4 funds are reducing, and just 2 are standing pat. This is as close to institutional consensus as you'll find.

Who's Buying Cloudflare?

The breadth of buying across different fund types and strategies is remarkable:

Vanguard leads with a $6.9 billion position that continues to grow. JPMorgan holds $2.9 billion and is adding. These institutional anchors provide a stable foundation for the stock.

Among hedge funds, the buying is widespread:

• T. Rowe Price — $483.8M (Increased). The growth-oriented asset manager is making a big bet on Cloudflare's expanding platform.
• Two Sigma — $266.2M (Increased). The quant fund's models are signaling upside — a notable divergence from their selling activity in other tech names.
• Appaloosa Management — $129.7M (Increased). David Tepper is adding to a conviction-level position in NET.
• Millennium Management — $45.6M (Increased). Israel Englander's multi-strategy fund is building exposure.
• Baker Bros Advisors — $9.5M (Increased). Even healthcare-focused Baker Bros sees value in Cloudflare's growth trajectory.
• Bridgewater Associates — $8.7M (Increased). Ray Dalio's all-weather fund adding NET is a notable cross-strategy endorsement.

What makes this buying round exceptional is the diversity of strategies represented. You have growth investors (T. Rowe), quant funds (Two Sigma), macro funds (Bridgewater), multi-strats (Millennium), and value-oriented managers (Appaloosa) all increasing simultaneously. When every type of sophisticated investor reaches the same conclusion, the signal is powerful.

Who's Selling Cloudflare?

The selling side is comparatively thin:

• Fidelity — $2.7B (Decreased). The largest seller by position size, Fidelity is trimming what remains an enormous holding. At $2.7 billion, they're still deeply invested — this looks like portfolio rebalancing, not a bearish call.
• Citadel Advisors — $75.5M (Decreased). Ken Griffin's fund is reducing a relatively small position.
• Renaissance Technologies — $27.6M (Decreased). The quant fund is modestly trimming.
• D.E. Shaw — $23.9M (Decreased). Another quant fund taking some chips off the table.

Notably, all four sellers are maintaining their positions — nobody is exiting Cloudflare entirely. And the combined selling is dwarfed by the combined buying activity. Even Fidelity's decrease still leaves them as one of the largest holders.

Notable Moves

The most significant signal here is the sheer breadth of buying. Nine funds buying versus four selling is a 9:4 ratio — one of the strongest buy-sell ratios we've observed in the current filing cycle across all stocks we track.

T. Rowe Price's $483.8 million position increase deserves special attention. T. Rowe is known for deep fundamental research on growth companies, and a position of this magnitude reflects genuine long-term conviction, not a short-term trade.

Two Sigma increasing to $266.2 million is also noteworthy because the quant fund has been reducing positions in several other tech names this quarter. The fact that their models are bullish on NET while bearish on peers suggests Cloudflare's quantitative profile — revenue growth, net retention rates, margin expansion — stands out favorably.

Bridgewater's continued accumulation, while small in dollar terms ($8.7M), is symbolically important. The world's largest hedge fund adding to a growth tech stock signals that Cloudflare's risk-reward profile appeals even to macro-oriented, risk-conscious investors.

What This Signals for NET Investors

The institutional picture for Cloudflare is overwhelmingly positive:

This is one of the strongest buy signals in our dataset. A 9:4 buy-sell ratio with zero complete exits is exceptional. For context, most stocks we track show a much more balanced or even sell-heavy institutional profile.

Cross-strategy consensus is rare and meaningful. When growth funds, quant funds, macro funds, and multi-strategy funds all agree, it typically reflects fundamental strength that transcends any single investment thesis. For Cloudflare, that thesis likely centers on its expanding total addressable market — from security to AI inference to developer platforms.

Fidelity's selling isn't bearish. At $2.7 billion, Fidelity remains one of the largest NET holders. Their reduction looks like standard portfolio management for a position that has grown significantly in value, not a directional call against the stock.

The AI edge computing narrative is gaining traction. Cloudflare's Workers AI platform and its global edge network position it uniquely for AI inference workloads. The broad institutional buying suggests smart money believes this opportunity is real and underappreciated by the market.

Cloudflare's combination of 30%+ revenue growth, expanding margins, and a massive edge network gives it a defensible moat that institutional investors clearly value. At $211 per share, the stock isn't cheap — but the smart money is saying the growth trajectory justifies the premium.

Track NET Institutional Activity in Real Time

Cloudflare is one of the most actively traded stocks among hedge funds. Stay ahead of the next move. Track NET institutional moves in real-time with Freenance Smart Money — we track 35 funds with $21.4T total AUM across 77,111 positions.

👉 app.freenance.io/smart-money/ticker/NET

When 9 out of 15 major funds are buying, the signal is clear. But signals change — and Freenance Smart Money ensures you're always working with the latest data, not last quarter's news.

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FAQ

Why is Cloudflare attracting broad institutional interest?

Cloudflare's combined CDN, security and developer platform reaches a large share of internet traffic, giving it structural relevance to enterprise IT spending. Recent 13F filings show that growth, quant and macro-oriented funds have all built or expanded positions, reflecting NET's status as a cross-strategy infrastructure name.

What is Cloudflare's edge compute story?

Cloudflare Workers and related services let developers run code and AI inference on the company's global edge network rather than in centralized data centers. Investors track edge and AI revenue disclosures closely because they represent the next layer of monetization on top of Cloudflare's existing security and performance products.

How are funds thinking about NET's valuation?

Cloudflare typically trades at a premium revenue multiple relative to legacy infrastructure peers, reflecting expectations for sustained 30%+ growth and margin expansion. Filings show institutions still net adding even at elevated multiples, signaling that smart money continues to weigh long-term opportunity against near-term valuation.

Why does Cloudflare's AI Workers platform matter to allocators?

Workers AI positions Cloudflare to capture distributed AI inference workloads close to end users, an area where latency and cost-per-token economics differ from centralized GPU clusters. Institutional research highlights this as a potential leg of secular growth that complements the company's core security and CDN business.

How should retail investors interpret bullish NET 13F data?

A high share of buyers in a single filing cycle shows historical positioning, not a forecast — and Cloudflare's growth profile carries elevated volatility. Use 13F data as one input alongside fundamentals, valuation work and personal risk tolerance, and remember that institutional moves are informational, not advice to act.