A practitioner's read on the business of the security market: who is growing, who is consolidating, who is being bought, and what it means if you run a security program. Public sources only. Written by Jesse Pike.
Not a news site and not investment advice.
Issue 2026-w36 · week ending 6 Sep 2026 · published 19 Sep 2026 · Feed
Record earnings from CrowdStrike, Zscaler, Palo Alto, Rubrik and NVIDIA meet thin VC and quiet M&A — the infra-to-security lag call holds.
Site note The lag call is this site's refusal to claim that infrastructure spending leads security spending by a fixed interval.
New companies and funding
Socure raises $156.0M Series E for digital identity and fraud prevention
Summit Partners led one of the week's larger identity-fraud raises.
KAZIMI raises $2.6M Pre-Seed for mobile anti-bot protection (Germany)
Market One Capital backed the anti-bot platform, a small early-stage formation signal.
CYBERA raises $2.5M Venture round for SD-WAN with built-in network security
The US SD-WAN vendor folds network security into its platform for distributed enterprises.
Opgate raises $60.0K Pre-Seed for AI-agent runtime security and policy enforcement
A very early formation bet on runtime controls for autonomous AI agents.
DetectifAI raises undisclosed Seed round for AI deepfake voice detection
Backers include Josh Constine and Manohar Kamath; no round size was disclosed.
HiddenLayer raises $100M Series B for AI runtime security
Delta-v Capital led the round, joined by Booz Allen Ventures, M12, Morgan Stanley and Ten Eleven Ventures.
AIR Security emerges from stealth with $50M for an AI agent firewall
Sequoia Capital and Greenoaks led the round alongside individual industry angels.
Acquisitions and consolidation
Palo Alto Networks reportedly paid $500M for Console, sources say
TechCrunch reports the AI-agent IT helpdesk startup deal; Palo Alto has not confirmed it.
ePlus acquires Daymark Solutions for an undisclosed amount
Adds Daymark to ePlus’s portfolio; deal terms were not disclosed.
Echo acquires container security firm Minimus (formerly Gutsy)
The Israel-based secure-by-design container image company was acquired for an undisclosed amount.
Ampcus acquires smarterd, an IT asset management and risk platform
Terms were undisclosed for the US-based IT asset management and risk-prioritization deal.
Trace3 acquires Calian's U.S. Commercial IT Business, an MSSP
The managed security services provider was acquired for an undisclosed amount.
Integrity360 acquires CyberIAM, a UK identity and access management consultancy
The IAM professional-services firm was acquired for an undisclosed amount.
Earnings and reported numbers
CrowdStrike revenue hits $1.47B, +26% YoY; net new ARR $333M, +51%
Net new ARR accelerated to 51% year-over-year, the strongest reacceleration among this week’s prints.
Zscaler FY2026 revenue grows to $898.2M, +25% YoY; ARR grows to $3,771M, +25%
Net new ARR added $246M in the quarter, extending Zscaler’s growth at scale.
CORRECTED
Zscaler fiscal fourth-quarter revenue (quarter ended 31 July 2026) grows to $898.2M, +25% YoY; ARR grows to $3,771M, +25%
SentinelOne revenue grows 21% to $292M; ARR up 22% to $1,218M
SentinelOne’s revenue and ARR growth held steady this quarter, consistent with a platformizing XDR market.
Okta revenue rises 11% to $805M, subscription revenue $793M
Subscription revenue grew 12% year-over-year, Okta’s core identity business still expanding steadily.
Rubrik revenue grows 38% to $427.3M; subscription ARR $1.66B, +33%
Subscription ARR growth accelerated to 33%, reinforcing Rubrik’s place in the data-security landscape.
Palo Alto FY2026 revenue grows 34% to $3.41B; Next-Gen Security ARR $9.10B, +63%
Next-Gen Security ARR growth of 63% is the fastest among this week’s public-issuer prints.
CORRECTED
Palo Alto fiscal fourth-quarter revenue (quarter ended 31 July 2026) grows 34% to $3.41B; Next-Gen Security ARR $9.10B, +63%
The original "why it matters" comparison, that this growth was the fastest among this week's public-issuer prints, is withdrawn. Next-Gen Security ARR is a company-defined segment and is not comparable with other companies' total revenue growth.
Broadcom Q3 revenue up 86 percent to $29.6B; AI chip revenue $16.7B, +221%
AI semiconductor revenue grew 221% year-over-year and 54% quarter-over-quarter, per CEO Hock Tan.
Nutanix revenue grows 16% to $757.1M; ARR reaches $2.55B, +16%
Nutanix’s ARR growth held at 16% for a second straight readout, a steady infrastructure-layer print.
Capital and financial position
NVIDIA revenue hits $96.2B, +106% YoY; Data Center revenue $89.0B, +117%
Data Center revenue growth accelerated to 117% year-over-year, the strongest print in this week’s set.
Microsoft guides capex to over $50B, citing a useful-life update
The next-quarter capex guide is a new infrastructure-buildout data point for the standing infra-to-security lag call.
What we now think
This week combined eight public-issuer earnings prints — CrowdStrike, Zscaler, SentinelOne, Okta, Rubrik, Palo Alto Networks, Broadcom and Nutanix all reported in-window — with thin early-stage funding and quiet, mostly undisclosed M&A. The pattern is consistent with the standing infrastructure-to-security lag call, not a change to it.
Thesis — holds: Every prints-lane figure this window is a strong beat with accelerating or steady growth (CrowdStrike net new ARR +51% YoY, Palo Alto Next-Gen Security ARR +63% YoY, Rubrik subscription ARR +33% YoY, NVIDIA Data Center revenue +117% YoY). That is evidence of demand strength at the infrastructure/platform layer, not a change to the standing infrastructure-to-security lag call: the call is about the gap between infrastructure spend and security-market translation, and this week’s prints are consistent with a call already built on strong infrastructure numbers. No M&A or funding item this window is large or structurally unusual enough to move it on its own.
CONFIDENCE · MEDIUM
- Stable 0–8-quarter infrastructure-to-security lag: this window adds one mature infrastructure impulse and no comparable registered security response, so the lag stays a no-call rather than a measured number of quarters.
Signed by Jesse Pike · 19 Sep 2026