Bots now account for about 57% of web requests, according to Cloudflare data, boosting attention on internet infrastructure companies that operate content delivery networks (CDNs), distributed servers that speed and secure online traffic. Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince had expected automated traffic to surpass human traffic by the end of 2027, but said that threshold was reached in May. CNBC’s Jim Cramer said Cloudflare shares have risen 121% from their February low, while Akamai is up 51% from its November low and Fastly has gained 159% this year. Akamai’s latest catalyst was a $11.6 billion, seven-year commitment from Anthropic announced on September 24, covering the AI lab’s central processing unit workloads and including a warrant to buy up to about 5% of Akamai’s shares. Akamai shares rose as much as 16% the following day, CNBC reported, but Cramer said they later surrendered those gains and more. The company expects no change to its 2026 revenue guidance and plans to spend about $1.7 billion more this year on components including memory. Cramer valued Akamai at less than 16 times this year’s earnings estimates, compared with 279 times for Cloudflare and more than 50 times for Fastly, attributing Akamai’s discount to a year of heavy spending. Goldman Sachs strategist Peter Oppenheimer warned of an earnings bubble in technology, citing borrowing and AI spending that is running ahead of cash flow. Cloudflare has also introduced a September 15 setting allowing websites to refuse AI training while remaining in search results; Apple and Google already honor the opt-out, while Microsoft plans support in early 2027. Prince says automated traffic could reach 1,000 times human traffic within five years, making payments from AI companies a potential determinant of who funds the infrastructure supporting that activity.