Cybersecurity looks set to boom over the next few years as AI capabilities like Mythos keep advancing. Investors have moved from treating all software as bad to favoring companies that help, work with or combat AI agents. By their charts over the past month, Fortinet, CrowdStrike and Palo Alto Networks look like the group's big three, and Fortinet held up regardless of CrowdStrike's and Palo Alto's results. x.com 

Palo Alto Networks and CrowdStrike are winners from the turmoil around the AI labs, because no one is going to trust one of those labs to defend them. x.com 

CrowdStrike and Palo Alto Networks are at all-time highs despite no real signs that AI is boosting cybersecurity, while Zscaler tumbled as mixed guidance overshadowed strong Q3 results. x.com 

Palo Alto Networks was unjustly sold off on overblown AI concerns, when AI adoption should actually be a tailwind. Its Next-Gen Security ARR has tripled over three years. x.com 

Cybersecurity looks like AI's next major use case, making CrowdStrike, Palo Alto Networks and Okta stocks to own now. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said cybersecurity will be a major use case for AI, and that signal from Huang, more than any personal call, is the reason to pay attention to the group. x.com  x.com  x.com 

Anthropic and OpenAI's inevitable move into cybersecurity threatens CrowdStrike and Palo Alto Networks' valuations. They look like the market's biggest bubble stocks right now; CrowdStrike trades at 40x ARR despite 25% growth and negative GAAP EBIT. x.com  x.com 

Palo Alto Networks and CrowdStrike are clear AI winners the market is sleeping on, because AI makes cyber offense 10x better, faster and cheaper and defense 10x more valuable to every CISO. Both already sit on endpoint, cloud, identity and application telemetry, a data and integration moat nobody can replicate overnight. They must shift from human-speed to AI-speed detection and resolution, but they have the leadership, M&A firepower, customer trust and channel distribution to win big. x.com 

Cybersecurity stocks have a powerful long-term tailwind because more AI means more complexity, more attack surface and more need for security. CrowdStrike, SentinelOne, Palo Alto Networks, Zscaler, Fortinet, Okta and Rubrik moved up strongly premarket after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published an essay arguing the AI industry should slow down, with Anthropic committing to give third-party evaluators permanent access to verify its safety measures. The market may be connecting those dots. x.com 

CrowdStrike and Palo Alto Networks need 50%-plus growth to deliver even a 10% IRR over a realistic horizon, but almost no conceivable case gets them there. They feel as dumb as Zoom and Peloton in 2021. Even if revenue doubles over four to five years, Palo Alto would still trade at 10x revenue and CrowdStrike at 20x, leaving little prospect of a real IRR; Palo Alto is growing in the teens today. x.com  x.com  x.com 

AI-powered attacks are spreading so fast that companies are unlikely to cut security budgets, even if they slow broader AI spending. The latest wave hit governments, banks, hospitals, grocery chains and businesses, while AI finds vulnerabilities and breaks in around the clock. That is why Cloudflare, Zscaler, CrowdStrike and Palo Alto Networks rose as broader AI concerns hit tech shares. x.com  x.com