Human Native is joining Cloudflare

Today, 15 January 2026, Cloudflare announced that it has acquired Human Native, a UK-based AI data marketplace that specialises in turning multimedia content into searchable and useful data. The Human Native team has spent the past few years helping AI developers create better AI through licensed data, emphasising that data should be treated as an asset with structure, transparency and respect.

The post notes that access to high‑quality data can improve technical performance and that one UK video AI company trained only on fully licensed, reputably sourced content after using Human Native’s data. Cloudflare says the collaboration accelerates work to help customers transform their content for AI bots and traditional human audiences, including tools like AI Crawl Control and Pay Per Crawl.

It also mentions ongoing investment in new economic models, including the x402 Foundation, created in partnership with Coinbase to enable machine‑to‑machine transactions for digital resources. Will Allen and James Smith are listed as authors, and the post frames the move as building the foundations for open, fair, and independently sustainable Internet growth.