MW Cloudflare's stock pops on viral Moltbot. Here's how a cybersecurity company became the newest AI winner.

By Christine Ji

The rise of autonomous personal assistants like Moltbot is creating a new bull case for companies that help secure digital identities and local data, analysts say

Shares of Cloudflare surged on Monday and Tuesday on the popularity of the AI assistant Moltbot.

Shares of cybersecurity company Cloudflare are on an unexpected tear this week thanks to the rise of a new artificial-intelligence agent.

Moltbot, an open-source AI agent built on Anthropic's Claude, exploded in popularity over the weekend. Originally named "Clawdbot," the application got a new moniker after Anthropic flagged trademark issues.

The bot acts as a personal assistant, autonomously taking actions without human prompting by accessing files and applications on a user's computer. After downloading the software from GitHub, users can use Moltbolt to connect their personal devices to large language models and can text the bot commands through WhatsApp, iMessage and other chat apps.

Cloudflare's stock (NET) rose more than 9% on Monday. As of Tuesday morning, shares were up another 14%.

The Monday stock move was an "outlier" among software names, RBC Capital Markets analyst Matthew Hedberg wrote in a Monday note, as Cloudflare isn't directly associated with Moltbot. But he noted that Moltbolt's ability to access emails, calendars and web browsing comes with cybersecurity risks.

"An AI agent that lives locally on a device cannot and should not have access to everything a user does, as identity controls are paramount in securing the agent and controlling what it can access," Hedberg wrote.

Also read: Anthropic's Claude Cowork is a fresh drag on software stocks. Are investors overreacting?

Additionally, Moltbot runs on local infrastructure instead of a central cloud database, requiring edge computing to process data closer to the source, Hedberg added. Cloudflare's Workers platform provides the high-speed infrastructure that agents like Moltbot need to operate securely.

"Most people don't think of Cloudflare as an edge compute company, but they are," Blake Crawford, co-founder and chief information officer of IT consulting firm Fusion Collective, told MarketWatch via email. Cloudflare has built "a next-gen edge network with compute available in 330 cities across the globe, which puts their compute within single-digit milliseconds of 95% of the world's internet-connected population."

While Moltbot and other AI agents won't be "needle movers" for Cloudflare's stock in the short term, Hedberg believes the rollout of autonomous agents will increase long-term demand for secure, low-latency infrastructure and new identity controls.

Hedberg also highlighted a cohort of identity-focused firms poised to benefit from the trend, including CyberArk Software $(CYBR)$, Palo Alto Networks (PANW), Okta $(OKTA)$ and SailPoint $(SAIL)$. Signs of monetization could start showing up in the second half of 2026 or in 2027, he wrote.

Read: Cybersecurity stocks fall, but an analyst wonders if China fears are just 'fake news'

-Christine Ji

This content was created by MarketWatch, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. MarketWatch is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 27, 2026 12:18 ET (17:18 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.