Palo Alto Networks reveals intent to acquire Protect AI

Palo Alto Networks has revealed that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Protect AI.

The company notes that this strategic acquisition reflects Palo Alto Networks’ commitment to remaining at the forefront of cybersecurity innovation and expands its capabilities to protect the dynamic new attack surface created by the explosion of AI.

Threat landscape

The company highlights that large enterprises and government organisations are building a complex ecosystem of AI models, agents, infrastructure, tools, APIs and third party components.

This creates new and often overlooked risks with threat actors exploiting vulnerabilities in different layers through techniques like:

• Model manipulation
• Data poisoning
• Prompt injection attacks

This threat landscape requires purpose-built solutions to reduce risk and provide best-in-class security.

Prisma AIRS

After the close of the transaction, Protect AI’s solutions and team of experts will enable Palo Alto Networks to accelerate its vision for Prisma AIRS, an AI security platform, that has also been unveiled.

According to the company, Prisma AIRS will offer customers unparalleled protection with its transformative technology.

As organisations explore embedding AI in their processes, Prisma AIRS will enable them to deploy AI bravely by protecting the entire AI development lifecycle to meet enterprise requirements for model scanning, risk assessment, GenAI runtime security, posture management and AI agent security.

“Palo Alto Networks will be well-positioned”

Anand Oswal, SVP and GM commented: “As AI-powered applications become core to businesses, they bring risks traditional security tools can’t adequately handle.

“By extending our AI security capabilities to include Protect AI’s innovative solutions for Securing for AI, businesses will be able to build AI applications with comprehensive security.”

Oswal continued: “With the addition of Protect AI’s existing portfolio of solutions and team of experts, Palo Alto Networks will be well-positioned to offer a wide range of solutions for customers’ current needs and also be able to continue innovating on delivering new solutions that are needed for this dynamic threat landscape.”

“Scale our mission”

Ian Swanson, Co-Founder and CEO, Protect AI explained: “Joining forces with Palo Alto Networks will enable us to scale our mission of making the AI landscape more secure for users and organisations of all sizes.

“We are excited for the opportunity to unite with a company that shares our vision and brings the operational scale and cybersecurity prowess to amplify our impact globally,” Swanson concluded.

The acquisition

Protect AI CEO, founders and employees are expected to join Palo Alto Networks once the deal closes.

The company states that the acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals and is expected to close by Palo Alto Networks’ first quarter of fiscal 2026.