# Cloudflare Cut 1,100 Jobs in May, Then Growth Accelerated to 36%

> Cloudflare cut about 20% of its workforce in May 2026, then posted 36% growth in Q2 as revenue per employee rose roughly 40%.

- Published: 2026-10-17T15:29:49+00:00
- Section: Restructuring
- Author: News Desk
- URL: https://newsforagent.com/news/2026-10-17/cloudflare-workforce-cut-growth-accelerates
- Source: [Saastr](https://www.saastr.com/cloudflare-cut-20-atlassian-cut-10-mostly-engineers-bending-spoons-cuts-up-to-75-all-three-got-better-so-how-lean-can-b2b-teams-really-get/)

## Key takeaways

- Cloudflare announced a plan on May 7 to cut about 20% of its workforce, roughly 1,100 people, with $140 million to $150 million in charges.
- Cloudflare's Q2 revenue came in at $696.1 million, up 36%, after Q1 revenue of $639.8 million, up 34%.
- Atlassian cut about 1,600 people in March, more than 900 of them in software R&D, and its cloud revenue grew 31% in the June quarter.

[Cloudflare](https://akta.pro/company-profiles/00006rs/cloudflare) announced a plan on May 7 to cut about 20% of its workforce, roughly 1,100 people, as it moved to an agentic AI-first operating model, with $140 million to $150 million in charges. The company said the cuts were mostly back-office roles AI had streamlined, with very few engineers or customer-facing salespeople affected, according to [Saastr](https://www.saastr.com/cloudflare-cut-20-atlassian-cut-10-mostly-engineers-bending-spoons-cuts-up-to-75-all-three-got-better-so-how-lean-can-b2b-teams-really-get/).

## Cloudflare's May Cut and the Quarter That Followed

Cloudflare had 5,156 full-time employees at the end of 2025. The company was doing well when it made the cut: that same quarter it posted $639.8 million in revenue, up 34%. The stock dropped more than 20% after hours, even with the revenue beat. Q2 revenue came in at $696.1 million, up 36%, and the stock rose 17% after hours. Cloudflare raised full-year guidance to $2.86 billion to $2.87 billion, ahead of the $2.81 billion consensus, and net dollar retention was 120%.

Quota-carrying sales was spared across every region and department. Management credited Workers and agentic workloads as key drivers of the quarter. Prince said the cuts were mostly back-office roles AI had streamlined, and he expects Cloudflare to have more employees in 2027 than at any point in 2026, planning to hire again for different roles. Departing staff got full base pay through the end of 2026, US healthcare through year end, and equity vesting through August 15.

[Atlassian](https://akta.pro/company-profiles/00000sb/atlassian) cut about 1,600 people in March to put more money into AI and enterprise sales, more than 900 of those roles in software R&D. Atlassian had lost more than half its market value since the start of 2026, on fears about AI-native competitors. In the June quarter, revenue was $1.766 billion, up 28%, with cloud revenue of $1.213 billion, up 31%. The stock jumped 35% the next day, and Mike Cannon-Brookes plans to buy up to $250 million of Atlassian stock on the open market.

## Cloudflare's Funding and Network Records

Cloudflare's funding records on [akta.pro company records](https://akta.pro/company-data) list nine rounds, including a post-IPO debt round of $2.2 billion in August 2026 and one of $1.8 billion in June 2025. The same records describe a network running in 335+ cities, blocking approximately 234 billion cyber threats daily and powering about 20% of all HTTP traffic.

## Earlier Cloudflare AI Moves

Cloudflare and OpenAI launched a research pilot in July 2026 to help AI systems discover more web content, using about 1% of Cloudflare's network, The Cloudflare Blog reported. GoDaddy, Infoblox, Google and Cloudflare demonstrated a Chain of Trust architecture with Singapore's IMDA to verify AI agent identities across platforms, PR Newswire reported in October 2026. Block cut 40% of its workforce and integrated AI agents, boosting engineering code reviews by 150%, WebProNews reported in October 2026.

## Companies in this story

- [Cloudflare company profile](https://akta.pro/company-profiles/00006rs/cloudflare) · website: http://www.cloudflare.com
- [Atlassian company profile](https://akta.pro/company-profiles/00000sb/atlassian) · website: https://www.atlassian.com
- [Bending Spoons company profile](https://akta.pro/company-profiles/0000078/bending-spoons) · website: http://bendingspoons.com

---
News for Agent · https://newsforagent.com/llms.txt