CrowdStrike, Palo Alto Networks shares pop as cybersecurity bulls finally get some AI validation

By Emily Bary

 A new coalition announced by Anthropic suggests that the AI company is looking to partner with traditional cybersecurity vendors - not compete against them 

 Palo Alto Networks was named part of Anthropic's new Project Glasswing, meant to strengthen cyber defenses in the AI era. 

 For months, cybersecurity bulls have defended shares of companies like Palo Alto Networks and CrowdStrike Holdings in the face of new product announcements from artificial-intelligence players like Anthropic. 

 While skeptics worried that AI tools would be able to replicate traditional cybersecurity capabilities for a fraction of the cost, the bull camp argued that Anthropic and its rivals were more likely to seek out mainstream cybersecurity vendors as partners. 

 On Tuesday, investors got a validation point for that bullish view: Anthropic announced CrowdStrike (CRWD) and Palo Alto Networks (PANW) as members of Project Glasswing, a new initiative meant to safeguard against the fact that, as AI tools get more sophisticated, they pose increasing risk to existing online-security structures. 

 The preview version of Anthropic's new Mythos model "has already found thousands of high-severity vulnerabilities, including some in every major operating system and web browser," the company said in a blog post. "Given the rate of AI progress, it will not be long before such capabilities proliferate, potentially beyond actors who are committed to deploying them safely." 

 See more: These 4 cybersecurity stocks are Wall Street's favorite AI-proof plays 

 The goal of Project Glasswing is to bring various technology leaders together and put AI capabilities "to work for defensive purposes," Anthropic said. 

 Palo Alto Networks shares gained 4.9% in Tuesday trading, while CrowdStrike shares rose 6.2%. 

 "We are encouraged by Anthropic's desire to partner with the industry to help stem this threat and believe this is further evidence of the company's desire to partner - rather than compete - in the broader security market," Piper Sandler analyst Rob Owens wrote in a note to clients. 

 Jefferies analyst Joseph Gallo took a similar view. "While we acknowledge that Anthropic could still be engineering its own cyber products in lower-barrier areas, we see the urgency of the partnership as indicative of core cyber's relative insulation from AI disintermediation," he said. 

 Other named members of Project Glasswing include Amazon.com's (AMZN) AWS, Apple (AAPL), Broadcom (AVGO), Cisco Systems (CSCO), Google (GOOG) (GOOGL), JPMorgan Chase (JPM), the Linux Foundation, Microsoft (MSFT) and Nvidia (NVDA). 

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 -Emily Bary 

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04-07-26 1742ET

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