CrowdStrike Holdings Inc.'s shares jumped in late trading after the company projected revenue for the full year that exceeded analysts' estimates, evidence that the cybersecurity industry continues to benefit from AI-fueled demand.
Sales for the third quarter will be as high as $1.53 billion, the Austin-based security software firm said in a statement Wednesday, above the $1.52 billion that analysts had estimated on average. The company estimated annual revenue of $5.99 billion to $6.01 billion, also ahead of estimates of $5.94 billion.
CrowdStrike's shares rose as much as 12% in after-market trading on Wednesday. The stock had risen more than 60% this year through Wednesday's close.
Cyber stocks have rallied in recent months with the fears of AI-powered cyberattacks and breaches escalating, bolstering demand across industries for stronger defenses. CrowdStrike sells several cybersecurity products designed to prevent and respond to breaches. Among them is an AI detection and response system that it bills as finding, investigating and addressing threats both targeting AI and originating from the technology.
In the second quarter, CrowdStrike posted revenue of $1.47 billion, above projections for $1.44 billion. Adjusted earnings were 31 cents a share, compared with consensus estimates of 29 cents. The company approved a four-for-one stock split that took effect in July.
The company's annual recurring revenue for the second quarter was $5.84 billion, also above estimates. Annual recurring revenue is widely used by software companies to track income from subscriptions, and CrowdStrike has consistently emphasized it as a key metric with investors.
Some AI models are proving increasingly adept at carrying out their own hacks, with Anthropic, OpenAI and Meta Platforms Inc. all disclosing in recent weeks that their models had escaped testing environments, accessed the open internet and breached real-world victims during testing.
Worries over the security risks of AI have accelerated since this spring, when Anthropic PBC limited the release of its Mythos model over concerns about its potency as a hacking tool. US government leaders warned major banks at the time to use the model to spot security weaknesses. The US National Security Agency began using it to find cybersecurity vulnerabilities in popular software including Microsoft Corp. products, Bloomberg News reported.
"The Mythos moment translated into mass-market acceptance that AI adoption needs security, and that's CrowdStrike," CrowdStrike Chief Executive Officer George Kurtz said in a statement. "Every enterprise will run on AI, and securing it is the largest market opportunity in our history."
Since then, OpenAI has acknowledged that its models hacked the systems of the AI startup Hugging Face during testing in mere hours, a breach that would have taken skilled humans far longer, Bloomberg News reported.
Founded in 2011, CrowdStrike has emerged as a top global cybersecurity provider with governments and companies seeking stronger defenses against increasingly sophisticated attacks. In July 2024, the company suffered a setback when a software update caused widespread crashes of Windows systems and disrupted businesses and services around the world.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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