Building for the Future
Source: Hacker News
2026-05-07
3 min read
Workforce Reduction
We are writing to let you know directly that we’ve made the decision to reduce Cloudflare’s workforce by more than 1,100 employees globally.
The way we work at Cloudflare has fundamentally changed. We don’t just build and sell AI tools and platforms—we are our own most demanding customer. Cloudflare’s usage of AI has increased by more than 600 % in the last three months alone. Employees across the company—from engineering to HR, finance, and marketing—run thousands of AI‑agent sessions each day to get their work done. This requires us to be intentional in how we architect our company for the agentic AI era, in order to super‑charge the value we deliver to our customers and to honor our mission to help build a better Internet for everyone, everywhere.
Today is a hard day. This decision unfortunately means saying goodbye to teammates who have contributed meaningfully to our mission and to building Cloudflare into one of the world’s most successful companies. It is not a reflection of the individual work or talent of those leaving us. Instead, we are re‑imagining every internal process, team, and role across the company. The actions are not a cost‑cutting exercise or an assessment of individual performance; they are about defining how a world‑class, high‑growth company operates and creates value in the agentic AI era.
Support for Departing Employees
It is important to us that we treat departing team members right and in a way that exceeds what we’ve seen from other companies. Acting with empathy isn’t about avoiding hard decisions—it’s about how you treat people when those decisions are made.
We are pairing the directness of these measures with severance packages that lead the industry. The packages for departing employees will include:
- The equivalent of their full base pay through the end of 2026.
- Continued healthcare coverage (U.S. employees will receive support through the end of the year; coverage varies globally).
- Vesting of equity through August 15, 2026, so they receive stock beyond their departure date.
- Waiver of one‑year cliffs and pro‑rated equity vesting through August for those who have not yet hit their cliffs.
We have asked the team to do this only once, as hard as that may be today. By taking decisive action now, we provide immediate clarity to those departing and protect the stability of the team that remains. Smaller, repeated cuts or a drawn‑out reorganization would create prolonged emotional uncertainty and stall our ability to build.
Future Direction
Cloudflare started as a digitally native company built in the cloud. That allowed us to catch up to and pass companies that had a head start of years or decades but were slowed down by outdated systems and processes. As we have now become the leader, we cannot rest on the workflows and organizational structures that worked yesterday. We are confident that our reshaped organization will be even faster and more innovative as we continue building the future.
Transparency is a core principle at Cloudflare, and it was important that you hear this from us first. We will be heading to our earnings conference call at 2 PM PT, when we’ll share more. We also plan to address today’s announcements live with the team at our all‑hands meeting.
It’s not an easy day, but it’s the right decision. Our mission to help build a better Internet is more important now than ever, and there’s a lot of work left to be done.