Matthew Prince, co-founder and chief executive officer of Cloudflare Inc., during the Fortune Brainstorm AI conference in San Francisco, California, US, on Monday, Dec. 11, 2023. The conference gathers leaders in machine learning and artificial intelligence to assess the industry and examine new business cases for AI. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images
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Cloudflare shares rose 21% in extended trading on Thursday after the web security and content distribution network provider issued results and quarterly guidance that proved more robust than analysts had projected.
Here’s how the company did, in comparison with estimates from analysts polled by LSEG, formerly known as Refinitiv:
- Earnings per share: 15 cents, adjusted, vs. 12 cents expected
- Revenue: $362.5 million, vs. $353.1 million expected
Cloudflare’s revenue rose about 32%, consistent with growth in the third quarter, according to a statement. The company’s net loss of $27.9 million, or 8 cents per share, narrowed from $45.9 million in the year-ago quarter.
Matthew Prince, Cloudflare’s co-founder and CEO, said in the statement that Cloudflare signed its largest new customer deal and biggest renewal to date during the quarter, resulting in the highest annual contract value in corporate history. On a conference call with analysts, Prince mentioned business from the U.S. Commerce Department.
Cloudflare is working to supply software developers with graphics processing units that they can use for artificial intelligence. The company had installed GPUs in 120 cities by the end of 2023, higher than an internal target of 100, Prince said.
“By the end of 2024, we plan to have inference to GPUs deployed in nearly every city that makes up Cloudflare’s global network and within milliseconds of nearly every device connected to the Internet worldwide,” Prince said. The network had presence in over 310 cities as of Dec. 31.
The company also wants to grow by selling security…
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