Does Cloudflare’s China-Focused AI Edge Expansion With JD Cloud Reframe The Bull Case For NET?

• Earlier this month, Cloudflare and JD Cloud announced an expanded partnership to build a global platform for deploying and managing AI inference workloads, aiming to cut latency between China and the rest of the world while keeping developers’ existing code unchanged.
• This move extends Cloudflare’s edge footprint into one of the most complex internet markets, potentially deepening its role as an AI-era networking and security backbone.
• Now we’ll examine how this expanded JD Cloud partnership, with its focus on global AI inference performance, reshapes Cloudflare’s existing investment narrative.

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Cloudflare Investment Narrative Recap

To own Cloudflare, you generally need to believe it can turn its global edge network and developer platform into a core layer of the modern internet, while scaling toward sustainable profitability. The expanded JD Cloud partnership fits that thesis by reinforcing Cloudflare’s role in AI-era traffic and security, but it does not by itself resolve the near term tension between heavy investment in AI infrastructure and already pressured gross margins, which remains a key risk.

Among recent updates, the company’s report that revenue grew 31% year over year in Q3 2025, with operating margins improving to 15.3%, feels most relevant here. It shows that even as Cloudflare layers on AI focused deals like JD Cloud, the central catalyst for the stock still hinges on whether it can keep improving efficiency while funding aggressive network and product expansion.

Yet while the JD Cloud deal highlights Cloudflare’s global reach, investors also need to weigh the growing risk that stricter data localization rules could...

Read the full narrative on Cloudflare (it's free!)

Cloudflare's narrative projects $3.8 billion revenue and $176.4 million earnings by 2028.

Uncover how Cloudflare's forecasts yield a $242.46 fair value, a 24% upside to its current price.

Exploring Other Perspectives

Twenty nine members of the Simply Wall St Community value Cloudflare anywhere from US$11.58 to US$242.46, underscoring how far opinions can diverge. Against that spread, the JD Cloud driven AI inference push sits squarely in the debate over whether Cloudflare’s heavy AI and network spending will ultimately ease margin pressure or extend the path to profitability, so it makes sense to compare several of these viewpoints before deciding how much of your portfolio to commit.

Explore 29 other fair value estimates on Cloudflare - why the stock might be worth as much as 24% more than the current price!

Build Your Own Cloudflare Narrative

Disagree with existing narratives? Create your own in under 3 minutes - extraordinary investment returns rarely come from following the herd.

• A great starting point for your Cloudflare research is our analysis highlighting 1 key reward and 1 important warning sign that could impact your investment decision.
• Our free Cloudflare research report provides a comprehensive fundamental analysis summarized in a single visual - the Snowflake - making it easy to evaluate Cloudflare's overall financial health at a glance.

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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.

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