Palo Alto Networks to buy Protect AI for estimated hundreds of millions amid AI security race
Acquisition underscores rising concern over AI vulnerabilities.
Palo Alto Networks, founded by Israeli Nir Zuk, is acquiring Protect AI, a cybersecurity company specializing in artificial intelligence. Although Protect AI is not an Israeli company, Shlomo Kramer—one of Israel’s leading cyber entrepreneurs—is among its investors. Protect AI is also considered one of the main competitors of Israeli startups Prompt Security, Lasso, and Apex.
The purchase amount was not disclosed, but market sources estimate the deal at several hundred million dollars. This acquisition likely marks the beginning of a wave of deals in a sector that is becoming increasingly critical to the future of cybersecurity.
According to Palo Alto Networks’ announcement, the goal of the acquisition is to strengthen its ability to protect against the new and dynamic attack surfaces created by the widespread adoption of AI technologies.
Protect AI, founded to tackle risks emerging from AI model development and deployment, has quickly established itself as a key player in this nascent but increasingly critical field. Its technology addresses threats such as model manipulation, data poisoning, and prompt injection attacks—issues that have grown more urgent as enterprises and government agencies rush to integrate AI into their operations.
Palo Alto Networks, already an early mover in AI security, said Protect AI’s expertise and technology would significantly accelerate its efforts to build out Prisma AIRS, a newly announced platform aimed at offering end-to-end protection for AI systems. Prisma AIRS is designed to cover the entire AI development lifecycle, including model scanning, risk assessments, GenAI runtime security, posture management, and AI agent security.
Adam Bain, Strategic Investor at 01 Advisors, said: “The acquisition of Protect AI by Palo Alto Networks marks an important step in advancing the security of AI technologies. As AI adoption accelerates, organizations need comprehensive solutions to secure their models, infrastructure, and applications. By combining their capabilities, Palo Alto Networks and Protect AI are well positioned to deliver an end-to-end AI security platform - spanning model scanning, posture management, AI red teaming, runtime protection, and security for AI agents - to help organizations build, deploy, and manage AI with greater confidence.”
