Artificial intelligence has turbo-charged cybersecurity investments this year, but the technology has also generated a substantial amount of noise and uncertainty for investors and end-user organizations alike. Technology upheaval in the cybersecurity industry is nothing new, but the seismic shift from Anthropic’s Mythos recent preview, Project Glasswing, continues to produce shockwaves. While large language models have offered tantalizing benefits for enterprises, they’ve at the same time sparked concerns about abuse by threat actors. The technology has also created financial upheaval. Investors are flocking to new security companies that are entirely AI-focused, while “AI-native” startups have also emerged — and are fetching top dollar in an active acquisitions market. And while the influx of capital is a positive sign for the cybersecurity industry, it also means more noise to contend with for CISOs, investors, and would-be suitors.

Full report : In a role reversal, investment dollars in security startups exceeded the value of mergers and acquisitions in 1Q26 by more than $1 billion, a rare occurrence.