Is Cloudflare an AI company?

Cloudflare is primarily recognized as a web infrastructure and security company, offering services such as content delivery networks (CDNs), DDoS protection, and DNS services. However, in recent years, Cloudflare has expanded into the artificial intelligence (AI) domain by introducing AI-focused products and services.

Cloudflare's AI Initiatives

Workers AI

In 2023, Cloudflare launched Workers AI, a serverless platform that enables developers to run AI models directly on Cloudflare's global network. This service allows for AI inference to be executed closer to end-users, reducing latency and improving performance. Workers AI integrates with other Cloudflare products like Vectorize (a vector database) and R2 (a data lake), providing a unified platform for AI application development.

AI Gateway

Cloudflare introduced the AI Gateway to help developers observe and control their AI applications. It offers features such as caching, rate limiting, request retries, and model fallback, simplifying the deployment and management of AI services.

Vectorize

Vectorize is Cloudflare's vector database designed to store and manage vector embeddings, which are essential for tasks like semantic search, recommendations, and anomaly detection in AI applications. It integrates seamlessly with Workers AI, enabling developers to build full-stack AI applications within the Cloudflare ecosystem.

Conclusion

While Cloudflare's core business remains in web infrastructure and security, its significant investments in AI technologies and services position it as a notable player in the AI industry. These initiatives demonstrate Cloudflare's commitment to providing developers with the tools needed to build and deploy AI applications efficiently and securely.