CrowdStrike Holdings reported record earnings in the fiscal fourth-quarter, defying investor concerns about the rising use of agentic AI potentially curbing demand for cybersecurity software and services.
The Texas-based cybersecurity company said total revenue grew 23% on a year-over-year basis, to $1.31 billion in the quarter ended Jan. 31.
Annual recurring revenue, a closely watched metric among cybersecurity companies, grew 24%, to $5.25 billion.
The results come at a time of growing market anxiety about how AI adoption could render traditional software — including cybersecurity tools — obsolete. CrowdStrike executives acknowledged those larger industry concerns and noted the Q4 performance was a demonstration that certain companies were well-positioned to compete in the new marketplace.
CEO George Kurtz told analysts during the company’s quarterly investor call Tuesday that the pace of AI innovation is not well understood.
“Novel discoveries are often interpreted as the death knells of existing categories,” Kurtz said during the call. “The market is questioning enterprise software’s role in an agentic world.”
Kurtz said the AI revolution is separating out two distinct types of software companies. The first category includes firms with “nice-to-have” technologies that are point products geared toward legacy pricing models, which make them vulnerable. The second category includes companies with mission-critical, trusted infrastructure technologies that are necessary for global continuity, Kurtz added.
“These technologies are net data creators producing novel, fresh and proprietary data that doesn’t exist elsewhere,” Kurtz said, “data that is fuel for the agentic business outcomes.”
Beyond just proprietary data, the successful companies offer “trusted architectural superiority” that drives “stickiness, adoption and scale.”
Shares of various technology companies, including cybersecurity firms have taken a hit in recent weeks as investors worry about the rise of AI adoption. Palo Alto Networks executives faced similar concerns during that company’s quarterly earnings call in February.
Kurtz argues that CrowdStrike has access to unique data from a combination of threat intelligence and incident response experts who can provide that unique combination of data that helps organizations stop breaches in real time.
The company now expects total revenue of approximately $1.36 billion during the fiscal first-quarter and between $5.86 billion to $5.92 billion for the 2027 fiscal year.
