CEO Jensen Huang gave cybersecurity his seal of approval, calling it the next major growth market, aligning with a growing number of indicators suggesting an inflection ahead. In his view, like many others, AI automation drives an exponential increase in code to be scanned, and that’s not counting the need to secure AI modeling facilities, the data AI runs on, or the impact of agents, which can hallucinate and run amok.
The layer Huang adds is the need for continuous monitoring and persistent defense, as this is not just about increased attack traffic but speed. Machine-driven attacks come at lightning-fast speeds, can adapt quickly, seek vulnerabilities, and exploit them before legacy security knows what’s happening, if it ever figures it out.
While NVIDIA is not a traditional cybersecurity play, it is integrating cybersecurity capabilities into its ecosystem. Tools include NVIDIA Morpheus for processing and analyzing real-time telemetry, NVIDIA DOCA, which helps systems isolate security issues, and NVIDIA Nemotron, a family of AI models that power agentic automation. To this end, cybersecurity is a key focus of NVIDIA’s investments, as shown by expanding partnerships with , Cisco Systems, and .
CrowdStrike: The #1 Partner in AI-Driven Cybersecurity
Huang called out CrowdStrike as its #1 partner in cybersecurity. The two work to integrate CrowdStrike’s proprietary data and security capabilities with NVIDIA’s Nemotron-based automation. This full-stack collaboration is designed to meet the needs of the most advanced AI data centers, which will bear the brunt of cyberattacks.
The goal, which is producing results, is real-time monitoring, oversight, and compliance, with response speeds to match the toughest attacks. The system includes a pair of models that play offense and defense with each other, improving themselves before new threats arise. According to CrowdStrike, custom enterprise models built on the technology have a 29% better detection rate and 6x faster remediation speeds over open-source models.
CrowdStrike’s Q2 results, Q3 guidance, and analyst trends highlight the opportunity for investors. The company accelerated growth to nearly 26%, outperformed expectations, and gave hot guidance, with internal metrics pointing to acceleration in upcoming quarters. Analysts responded with numerous affirmations, some price target increases, and a few initiated coverage, extending the trends. They include strengthening coverage and an uptrend in prices, with the high end suggesting another 70% upside relative to mid-September trading.
Cisco Systems Secures AI at All Levels of the Stack
Cisco Systems is another established cybersecurity player leveraging its experience alongside NVIDIA to secure AI. Their collaboration takes a full-stack approach, securing AI directly within the hardware and software infrastructure, from the base silicon to the agents running on the system. Its results also reflect strength, with acceleration, outperformance, and hot guidance, but this is not a cybersecurity pure-play. Cisco is instrumental to AI infrastructure at all levels, providing much of the connectivity and infrastructure hardware that data centers need to operate, along with the software that makes it work.
Investors need to consider a massive shift in market perception. Once a legacy hardware provider with sluggish growth at best, Cisco has emerged as an AI-critical powerhouse and now provides embedded security features. This makes it a top-tier choice for business and enterprise, especially hyperscalers, all of which are major clients.
Analysts rate with a consensus of Moderate Buy and point to an uptrend in price targets. The consensus offers about 17% upside, but the trend matters, pointing to the $165 region and 50% upside.
Palantir Sharpens Cybersecurity Focus, Integrating With NVIDIA and Cisco Systems
Palantir is a critical cog in this network, collaborating with both NVIDIA and Cisco Systems to integrate its data and telemetry into the cybersecurity framework. The key element is ontology: computer-readable information that outlines the business and operational framework, compliance, and regulations that give AI context. Collectively, they’re solving the problem of sovereign AI: the need for governments, businesses, and institutions to retain complete control of their data, systems, and networks while remaining compliant. The result is a full-stack AI-computing system, isolated from public clouds, secure at every layer and highly contextualized.
Palantir’s results are the hottest of all. The company not only accelerated growth but doubled the prior year’s pace in Q2, proving naysayers wrong and demonstrating the value of its data and services. Looking ahead, growth is expected to remain robust, but it may underestimate the company’s strengths, given its history of outperformance, outlook, and accelerating cybersecurity needs. Until then, sentiment trends are strong, providing the triple tailwind of increasing coverage, firming sentiment, and a rising consensus price target.
