Cloudflare Inc

Cloudflare's Workers developer platform is becoming a key growth engine, with the company reporting over 7.4 million developers on the platform by the end of the second quarter of 2026, adding nearly two million in that quarter alone—more than the 1.5 million added during all of 2025. The platform is gaining traction among enterprise customers, with more including Workers in pool-of-funds contracts; for instance, an APAC technology company signed a $4 million Workers contract after an $8.7 million Application Services deal, and another signed a $6 million contract for AI agent capabilities. Cloudflare says Workers has moved beyond adoption to meaningfully contribute to revenues, driving consumption alongside security and networking products. The rise of AI agents could further boost the platform, with Zacks Consensus Estimates projecting 32.3% and 28.5% year-over-year revenue growth for 2026 and 2027, respectively. However, Cloudflare faces tough competition from Palo Alto Networks, whose SASE segment grew 40% year over year in fiscal Q3 2026, and Zscaler, which ended its fiscal Q3 with over 700 Zero Trust Everywhere enterprises, up from 550. Cloudflare's stock is up 40.7% year-to-date, trading at a forward price-to-sales ratio of 28.87 versus the industry's 3.91, and carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Baird tech strategist Ted Mortonson forecasts that hyperscaler capital expenditures will reach about $800 billion this year and could hit $1.1 trillion by 2027, driven by demand outstripping supply in compute and early-stage agentic adoption in enterprises. He notes that while semiconductor stocks have surged 61% and software indices are flat, the software sector is seeing short covering and institutional interest in system-of-record names. The security industry has been transformed by the introduction of Mythos, boosting names like Cloudflare, Crowdstrike, and Palo Alto, though these stocks now trade at nearly 30 times enterprise value to revenue, with some insider selling on the periphery. Mortonson cautions that changes in security architecture show up in pipeline rather than annual recurring revenue, and the street may not yet grasp how quickly that pipeline converts to orders.

The four content delivery stocks tracked by this publication reported a very strong second quarter, with group revenues beating analysts' consensus estimates by 3.6% and next quarter's revenue guidance coming in 1.8% above expectations. Akamai Technologies reported revenues of $1.1 billion, up 5.4% year on year, but delivered the weakest performance against analyst estimates, weakest guidance update, and slowest revenue growth among its peers, with its stock down 4.9% since reporting. Fastly reported revenues of $183.3 million, up 23.3% year on year, achieving the biggest analyst estimate beat and highest guidance raise of the group, though its stock fell 8.3% since reporting. F5 reported revenues of $865.1 million, up 10.9% year on year, while Cloudflare reported revenues of $696.1 million, up 35.9% year on year, scoring the fastest revenue growth in the group and seeing its stock rise 3% since reporting.

Cloudflare has partnered with Signal as an independent Key Transparency auditor for the encrypted messaging app. The agreement expands Cloudflare's role in securing major messaging platforms, following its earlier collaboration with WhatsApp. As an external auditor, Cloudflare will help verify Signal's key transparency system for hundreds of millions of messaging users. This development broadens Cloudflare's influence in digital trust, privacy, and encryption standards across consumer communications.

Atlassian and Cloudflare reported strong quarterly results that pushed back against Wall Street's 'SaaSpocalypse' fears over slowing enterprise software demand. Atlassian posted adjusted earnings per share of $1.87, beating the $1.50 consensus, and grew its Remaining Performance Obligations 44% year-over-year to $4.8 billion, while its CEO announced plans to personally buy up to $250 million in company stock. Cloudflare delivered second-quarter revenue of $696.1 million, up 36% year-over-year and above the $666 million estimate, and raised its full-year 2026 revenue guidance to between $2.864 billion and $2.870 billion. Hedge fund holdings in Atlassian fell from 57 funds in the fourth quarter to 44 in the first quarter, with short interest at 11.20% of the float, while Cloudflare saw institutional accumulation rise from 70 to 84 funds and short interest of just 3.09%.

Cloudflare launched Cloudflare Wallets on August 4, 2026, giving autonomous software agents the ability to hold and spend money for the first time. The system uses a two-tier hierarchy of Account Wallets controlled by humans and Virtual Wallets assigned to individual agents via API keys, with spending caps and approved merchant lists set by the account owner. It relies on cloudflare.pay handles built on Web Bot Auth to provide persistent agent identity, and is integrated with the x402 protocol, which has already settled 160.6 million transactions worth $41.2 million across 7 chains. The x402 Foundation, a 40-member consortium including Stripe, Visa, Mastercard, Google, AWS, Circle, Coinbase, Adyen, American Express, Fiserv, Ripple, and Shopify, launched on July 14, 2026 to standardize the underlying infrastructure. The Cloudflare Monetization Gateway, which opened its waitlist on July 1, 2025, will allow sites to charge agents per request, turning API calls into revenue events.

Cloudflare has entered the agent commerce race with a two-tier wallet architecture designed to give developers programmable control over how AI agents spend money. The company's new AI Agents platform, announced August 4, introduces Account Wallets for funding and Virtual Wallets for individual agents, each equipped with configurable guardrails including periodic spending allowances, merchant allow-lists, and per-transaction size caps. The move positions Cloudflare alongside Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, Google, and AWS as a premier member of the x402 Foundation, the open-protocol consortium building settlement infrastructure for machine-initiated transactions. Cloudflare is also introducing cloudflare.pay, a human-readable stablecoin identifier that uses the x402 protocol for settlement, combining a payment rail and identity layer at the network infrastructure level. The announcement comes as the x402 Foundation has processed over 200 million transactions, though more than 95 percent are protocol signaling rather than actual commercial exchange, with real daily volume near $28,000 according to Artemis Analytics.

Lawson has launched Japan's first proof-of-concept trial for stablecoin payments at point-of-sale registers, while Cloudflare has unveiled a stablecoin-compatible wallet. Lawson's trial is taking place at a store in Takanawa Gateway City, and paying with JPYC was as effortless as a standard QR code payment. Cloudflare's wallet also supports autonomous payments by AI agents, marking a turning point where the internet itself embeds financial infrastructure. The moves by both companies symbolize that stablecoins are entering a phase where they are quietly woven into existing infrastructure, rather than emerging as a new protagonist.

Cloudflare shares surged 7.7% after the company reported second-quarter results that beat expectations and raised its full-year outlook. Revenue rose 35.9% to $696.1 million, exceeding estimates by 4.7%, while billings grew 34.8% to $753.5 million. Adjusted earnings per share of $0.29 beat consensus by 7.5%, and adjusted operating income reached $96.11 million, a 6.1% beat. CEO Matthew Prince noted that non-human, machine-to-machine AI traffic surpassed 50% of network volume for the first time, driving adoption of its Workers developer platform. Management lifted its full-year revenue guidance to $2.87 billion at the midpoint and adjusted EPS guidance to $1.26, and initiated a third-quarter outlook above Street forecasts.

ARK Invest, led by Cathie Wood, purchased approximately $36.9 million worth of Space Exploration Technologies Corp. shares last week, making SpaceX its largest stock buy. The firm acquired 316,963 shares across several funds, with about $19.7 million bought on August 5 after SpaceX shares fell 13.6% following its first public earnings report, and another roughly $13.2 million added as the stock rebounded nearly 16% on Friday. ARK also increased exposure to other AI infrastructure names including CoreWeave, Nvidia, and Cloudflare, while trimming positions in Palantir, Shopify, and Roblox.

Cloudflare announced a new suite of AI and agentic products, including Cloudflare OS, Identity-Aware AI Gateway, and Cloudflare Wallets. Cloudflare OS is an open-source AI workspace for developers building and running AI agents, while the Identity-Aware AI Gateway provides user and agent analytics for enterprise AI governance. Cloudflare Wallets aim to support agentic payments and identity, extending the company's reach into AI-driven financial transactions. The launch strengthens Cloudflare's positioning in AI infrastructure by tying agents, security, and transaction rails into its existing zero-trust and globally distributed network. The stock is currently at $300.27 with a 53.2% return year to date.

US stocks closed higher on Friday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average rising 151.83 points to 54,036.93. The S&P 500 gained 47.68 points to 7,757.64, a record high, and the Nasdaq surged 342.26 points to 26,690.62. The main driver was the US nonfarm payrolls report, which showed a decline of 23,000 jobs in July, sharply missing economists' expectations for an increase of 80,000. This eased market concerns that the Federal Reserve would raise interest rates at its September meeting. According to the CME FedWatch Tool, most traders now expect the Fed to keep its policy rate steady at 3.50% to 3.75%. Software stocks boosted the market on strong earnings, with Cloudflare jumping over 5%, Atlassian soaring 35%, and Airbnb climbing 17% after reporting better-than-expected results. In European markets, the STOXX 600 index closed at 660.25, up 0.31%, marking a record high for the fourth straight session, supported by tech stocks and positive corporate earnings.

US stock indices advanced after an unexpected decline in July nonfarm payrolls and softer wage growth eased concerns about imminent Federal Reserve rate hikes. The S&P 500 gained 0.61%, the Dow added 0.25%, and the Nasdaq 100 rose 1.00%, while the 10-year Treasury yield fell 4 basis points to 4.64%. Software stocks surged, led by Atlassian’s more than 34% jump on a strong revenue forecast, and cybersecurity stocks rallied, led by an 8% jump in Cloudflare after its better-than-expected quarterly earnings. Chipmakers also gained, with Microchip Technology up more than 12% on an upbeat sales outlook, and Airbnb climbed more than 15% after reporting revenue above estimates and raising its full-year growth forecast.

Cloudflare jumped 16% in premarket trading Friday after raising its full-year outlook, driven by artificial intelligence demand spreading beyond chipmakers into networking and security infrastructure. The company now expects 2026 revenue of $2.86 billion to $2.87 billion, up from its previous range of $2.805 billion to $2.813 billion, and adjusted earnings guidance increased to $1.25 to $1.26 per share from $1.19 to $1.20. Developer adoption is accelerating, with Cloudflare adding about 2 million developers during the second quarter alone, exceeding the roughly 1.5 million added in all of last year. The Workers platform has become one of its fastest-growing businesses as developers increasingly build and run AI applications closer to users. The rally leaves Cloudflare trading at more than 190 times forward earnings, well above many cybersecurity peers, raising the question of whether AI-driven demand can keep growing quickly enough to justify that premium.

Cloudflare shares surged nearly 16% after the company reported second-quarter revenue of $696.1 million, up 36% and well above the roughly $665 million analysts expected. Growth accelerated from prior quarters, and non-GAAP earnings of $0.29 a share also beat estimates. Current remaining performance obligations, a measure of contracted future revenue, rose 35%. The company posted a GAAP net loss of $170.0 million, or $0.48 a share, driven by a $150.7 million restructuring charge, but excluding that charge non-GAAP operating income was $96.1 million. Free cash flow was $56.4 million, and the company held $4.16 billion in cash and securities. Cloudflare raised its full-year revenue outlook to a range of $2.864 billion to $2.870 billion and guided third-quarter revenue to about $737 million.

Atlassian surged 34%, Twilio jumped 27%, and Cloudflare gained 9% after each delivered strong quarterly results and raised their growth outlooks. Bank of America upgraded Atlassian to Buy and raised its target to $175, calling the company's workflow and collaboration data an increasingly valuable AI asset. Goldman Sachs raised Cloudflare's price target to $389, citing agentic AI adoption, 36% revenue growth, and record large-customer net additions. Jefferies raised its Atlassian target to $200, while Wells Fargo raised its Twilio target to $275, reflecting broad analyst optimism across the software sector.

Doximity, Cloudflare, and Atlassian led premarket movers after reporting quarterly results that beat expectations. Doximity shares soared 66% after the professional medical networking platform reported fiscal first-quarter 2027 revenue of $156.6 million, above the $151.7 million consensus, and raised its full-year financial targets. Atlassian surged 31% after delivering a fiscal fourth-quarter earnings beat with adjusted EPS of $1.87 versus the $1.50 consensus and revenue of $1.77 billion, representing 28% year-over-year growth. Cloudflare rose 16.2% to $330.51 after raising its full-year 2026 revenue forecast to between $2.86 billion and $2.87 billion, citing resilient demand linked to artificial intelligence. Other notable gainers included PubMatic, Figs, Twilio, Airbnb, Hertz, QuinStreet, and JFrog, all of which advanced on better-than-expected results. On the downside, The Trade Desk tumbled more than 27% after its second-quarter revenue of $715.1 million missed estimates and it guided for a third-quarter revenue decline of about 12%, while Sezzle plunged 23% on a warning that revenue growth could slow to around 30% in the second half of 2026.

Several companies made significant premarket moves following their latest earnings reports. Atlassian shares jumped more than 29% after beating FactSet consensus on revenue and guidance for its fourth quarter, though its 13% year-over-year revenue growth forecast fell short of the 13.4% expectation. Wendy's dropped 2% as global sales declined more than 6%, driven by an 8.2% U.S. decline, and the company withdrew its 2026 financial outlook despite beating FactSet consensus on earnings, revenue, and adjusted EBITDA. Solar stocks rose after President Trump imposed tariffs on imported solar panel components, with First Solar up more than 5%, Invesco Solar ETF up nearly 3%, and SolarEdge Technologies up 2%. Airbnb surged nearly 7% after posting second-quarter earnings of $1.37 per share on revenue of $3.61 billion, exceeding LSEG estimates of $1.25 per share and $3.58 billion. Twilio soared more than 17% as it guided for adjusted earnings of $1.42 to $1.47 per share on revenue of $1.51 billion to $1.52 billion, above the $1.39 per share and $1.46 billion consensus, and raised its full-year revenue growth outlook to 18% to 18.5% from 14% to 15%, topping the 14.8% forecast. Trade Desk tumbled 27% after second-quarter adjusted earnings of 34 cents per share on revenue of $715 million missed LSEG estimates of 40 cents and $751 million. Cloudflare jumped more than 16.5% on strong guidance, expecting third-quarter adjusted earnings of 34 cents per share on revenue of $736 million to $737 million, compared with consensus of 32 cents and $722 million, and also beat second-quarter estimates. Akamai Technologies rose 8.3% after second-quarter adjusted earnings of $1.59 per share on revenue of $1.10 billion topped LSEG forecasts of $1.57 per share and $1.09 billion.

The DR NET03 price rose 12.70% to 5.50 baht after Cloudflare, the underlying stock, reported second-quarter 2026 results that beat market expectations. Revenue came in at 696.1 million US dollars, up 35.9% from a year earlier, and adjusted earnings per share were 0.29 US dollars, an increase of 38.1%. Management said AI has become the most significant growth driver in the company's history, and forecast next-quarter revenue of approximately 723 million US dollars. Asia Plus Securities assessed that the stock remains suitable for long-term investment under the AI and cybersecurity theme rather than short-term speculation, with support for NET03 at 4.40 to 4.60 baht and resistance at 4.84 to 5.20 baht.

Several companies made significant after-hours moves following their quarterly earnings reports. Airbnb surged about 7% after posting second-quarter earnings of $1.37 per share on revenues of $3.61 billion, beating analyst forecasts of $1.25 per share and $3.58 billion. Twilio jumped roughly 16% on strong current-quarter guidance, projecting adjusted earnings of $1.42 to $1.47 per share on revenue of $1.51 billion to $1.52 billion, above consensus estimates. Trade Desk tumbled 22% after its adjusted earnings of 34 cents per share and revenue of $715 million missed expectations of 40 cents and $751 million. Sweetgreen plunged 14% as its second-quarter loss of 22 cents per share on $193 million in revenue fell short of the anticipated loss of 15 cents on $195 million. DraftKings slipped over 1.5% after revenue of $1.44 billion missed the $1.51 billion estimate, though it reaffirmed its 2026 fiscal-year guidance. Cloudflare rallied 17% on upbeat guidance, while Akamai Technologies gained 12% and Instacart rose more than 8% on better-than-expected revenue. Dropbox fell nearly 6% after its non-GAAP gross margin of 81.6% narrowly missed the 81.7% consensus.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on August 4, 2026, that an AI agent is a tool, not a person, leaving users liable for agent actions under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. The decision in Amazon v. Perplexity AI vacated a preliminary injunction against Perplexity's Comet AI shopping agent, with the court calling Amazon's CFAA claim legally baseless and bad policy. However, the court acknowledged that legal treatment of agentic AI will change, while Amazon's trademark and state-law claims remain active on remand. Market data shows only 14% of consumers trust AI to execute purchases without verification, and 42% refuse to trust AI for transactions over $25, creating a gap between legal assumptions and user behavior. In response, Mastercard launched Agent Pay for Machines with Verifiable Intent, Visa's Trusted Agent Protocol now has over 100 partners, and Cloudflare Wallets introduced human-configured guardrails like per-agent spending allowances and merchant allowlists.

Cloudflare has introduced Cloudflare Wallets, a programmable wallet for artificial intelligence agents that supports stablecoin payments. The goal is to enable AI agents to verify identity and pay for APIs and digital content through stablecoin micropayments, a concept the company calls agentic commerce. Users can reserve account names immediately, while payment features will launch later. There are plans to integrate with the Monetization Gateway using Coinbase's x402 protocol to enable stablecoin micropayments. Will Pepper, a software engineer at Cloudflare, said the wallet will allow users to store stablecoins and receive payments from across the web.

Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince has publicly criticized Vail Resorts' appointment of MGM Resorts International chief Bill Hornbuckle to its board, intensifying tensions as Prince pursues a roughly $500 million offer to acquire Park City Mountain Resort. Vail Resorts announced on July 30, 2026 that Hornbuckle would join as its tenth board member effective August 3, 2026. Prince, a Park City native and former ski instructor, has argued the company underinvests in lift infrastructure, snowmaking, and worker compensation, and has framed safety shortfalls as justification for a community-based acquisition. Vail Resorts has rejected the offer, stating Park City Mountain is not for sale and citing $121 million in capital investment at the resort since 2016. The appointment comes amid reports that Vail Resorts has hired takeover-defense bankers and that Oasis Capital is weighing a proxy fight, with the next earnings call scheduled for September 24, 2026.

A PwC survey of over 1,000 executives in the US financial industry found that 86% view artificial intelligence skills as more valuable than an MBA for many new-hire positions, while 91% of executives are ready to increase compensation to compete for talent with AI skills. Peter Pollini, head of PwC's financial services business, said organizations need people who truly understand how to build and manage AI systems, not just those who are merely familiar with AI. The value of an MBA is increasingly being questioned as total program costs approach nearly 300,000 US dollars, while top universities such as Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, and MIT are turning to short-duration, lower-cost AI training programs for executives. For example, MIT's program lasts just five days and costs about 13,000 US dollars. Meanwhile, technology companies like IBM, Shopify, and Cloudflare are accelerating the hiring of entry-level employees proficient in AI tools, believing that the younger generation can create more value for the organization.

Cloudflare shares rose 1.32% to $265.61 in the latest close, outperforming the S&P 500's 0.02% gain. The web security and content delivery company has gained 10.5% recently, contrasting with a 4.21% loss in the Computer and Technology sector. Cloudflare is set to report earnings on August 6, 2026, with analysts projecting earnings per share of $0.27, a 28.57% increase from the prior year, and revenue of $665.42 million, up 29.88%. Full-year estimates call for earnings of $1.21 per share and revenue of $2.82 billion, representing gains of 30.11% and 29.96%, respectively. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 32% higher over the last 30 days, and Cloudflare holds a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Cloudflare has launched Precursor, a continuous behavioral validation engine for bot management that runs on its edge network and inside user browsers to scrutinize entire sessions for automated activity. The launch comes as the stock shows a 10.5% one-month return and a 23.45% three-month return, with a one-year total shareholder return of 32.12% sitting within a three-year total return of nearly three times. Cloudflare last closed at $262.15, while Simply Wall St’s most widely followed narrative pegs fair value at $167.45, framing the stock as 57% overvalued. The fair value framework rests on strong revenue expansion, a path to profitability, and a premium future earnings multiple, but the company’s loss of $86.74 million and a share price near analyst targets mean any slowdown in security demand or AI enthusiasm could pressure the premium narrative.

Three artificial intelligence stocks are flying under the radar as July ends, each benefiting from the AI buildout with distinct business models. Palantir Technologies saw its shares fall nearly 20% year to date despite fiscal first-quarter revenue jumping 84.7% to $1.63 billion, with U.S. commercial revenue up 133% and management raising full-year revenue guidance to between $7.65 billion and $7.66 billion. Astera Labs, a fabless semiconductor company providing connectivity fabric for AI racks, posted first-quarter revenue of $308.4 million, a 93.4% increase, and gained from Nasdaq-100 inclusion and the launch of its Scorpio X-Series switch targeting a $20 billion market by 2030. Cloudflare is repositioning as the network layer for agentic AI, with first-quarter revenue rising 33.5% to $639.8 million and current remaining performance obligations growing 34%, while guiding full-year revenue to between $2.805 billion and $2.813 billion.

The 12 software development stocks tracked by this publication reported a strong first quarter, with revenues beating analysts' consensus estimates by 2.9% and next quarter's revenue guidance coming in 1.4% above expectations. Share prices have risen 36.3% on average since the latest earnings results. Twilio posted revenues of $1.41 billion, up 20% year on year and exceeding estimates by 4.7%, while Datadog achieved the biggest analyst estimate beat with revenues of $1.01 billion, up 32.2% year on year. Akamai delivered the weakest performance, with revenues of $1.07 billion, up 5.8% year on year and in line with expectations. Cloudflare recorded the fastest revenue growth in the group at 33.5% year on year, reaching $639.8 million.

Jim Cramer told his followers that there will always be another DeepSeek and named Palo Alto Networks and CrowdStrike as the cybersecurity plays for a world where every enterprise is scrambling to secure frontier AI models and compromised agents. Palo Alto Networks shares are up 92.18% year-to-date, CrowdStrike is up 73.87% year-to-date, and Fortinet leads the group with a 102.47% year-to-date gain. Cramer also highlighted Zscaler, which is down 34.9% year-to-date despite nine straight EPS beats and an analyst target of $192.58, and Cloudflare, which is up 38.2% year-to-date as it pivots to an agentic AI-first company. The five stocks are positioned to benefit from enterprise budget shifts toward AI security infrastructure.

Oracle shares have dropped 33% over the past month to $127, extending a selloff driven by broader AI-capex de-risking despite strong cloud fundamentals. Oracle’s Q4 FY2026 revenue reached $19.18 billion with Cloud Infrastructure up 93% year over year, and remaining performance obligations stand at about $638 billion, but free cash flow was negative $23.7 billion on capital expenditures of $55.7 billion. Cloudflare stock gained 19% in the same period on 34% revenue growth to $640 million, though it trades at a steep 60.1 times price-to-book ratio and remains unprofitable on a trailing basis. CoreWeave cratered 38% alongside Oracle, with a net loss widening to $740 million and free cash flow of negative $4.7 billion, while Snowflake rose 15% after raising full-year FY2027 product revenue guidance to $5.84 billion and receiving a KeyBanc price target increase to $325 with an Overweight rating.

Cloudflare has launched Precursor, a continuous behavioral validation engine for advanced bot management. Precursor analyzes user sessions in real time to distinguish humans from sophisticated automated attacks, aiming to protect user privacy more effectively than traditional CAPTCHAs. The launch comes as Cloudflare's stock trades at $273.04, with a 39.3% return year to date and a 149.3% return over five years. The product is designed to address growing automated bot traffic and could deepen Cloudflare's relationships with large enterprise and platform customers.

Cloudflare shares rose 3.2% after US and international security agencies issued a joint warning about Russian state-sponsored cyber threats targeting critical infrastructure. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the National Security Agency, and the FBI released an advisory highlighting that Russian cyber actors are exploiting vulnerable networking devices and routers, with sectors such as communications, energy, government, and healthcare being targeted globally. The stock was trading at $278.59, up 3.4% from the previous close.

Several stocks made notable moves this week. Lazard rose 4.4% on Thursday after being named financial advisor to Warburg Pincus on a $3.6 billion private equity transaction. Cloudflare gained 6% on Tuesday following a Scotiabank upgrade to Sector Outperform and a price target increase to $300 from $225. DigitalOcean climbed 7% on Tuesday after pre-announcing record preliminary second-quarter 2026 results, with remaining performance obligations expected to top $800 million, more than ten times higher than a year earlier. Sonos advanced 2.5% on Tuesday after renewing an exclusive sales representative agreement with AdsWizz for its audio advertising inventory across Europe. Carnival rose 5.3% on Thursday after its board declared a quarterly dividend of $0.15 per share.

Zacks Investment Research recommends buying five cloud computing stocks for the second half of 2026, citing surging digital demand and an AI-induced cloud boom. The picks are Amazon, Alphabet, Cisco Systems, Cloudflare, and Palantir Technologies, each carrying a Zacks Rank of 2, or Buy. Amazon is expected to grow revenue and earnings by 15.3% and 23.6% this year, while Alphabet's respective growth rates are 723.5% and 32.5%. Cisco projects total AI infrastructure orders of $9 billion in fiscal 2026, Cloudflare added 1 million developers in the first quarter of 2026, and Palantir's revenue and earnings are forecast to rise 71.9% and 97.3% this year.

US stock futures are mixed with S&P 500 contracts slightly in the red and Dow futures modestly higher as investors weigh climbing oil prices, rising UK government bond yields above 4.8%, and a 50% chance of a September US rate hike. The ISM Services PMI came in at 54.0, showing the economy still expanding while price pressures ease. Among top movers, Cloudflare jumped 8.60% after a Scotiabank upgrade, Venture Global surged 6.82%, and Occidental Petroleum climbed 5.88%, while Rivian Automotive fell 18.12% after completing a US$1.16 billion follow-on equity offering, Astera Labs declined 11.52%, and Rocket Lab dropped 10.40%. Earnings from PepsiCo and Delta Air Lines are on the radar for the next few sessions.