AI Has to Be Secured by Design Says Palo Alto CEO as Company Acquires Protect AI

Palo Alto Networks is acquiring Protect AI, a fast-rising AI security startup based in Seattle, in a deal valued at over $500 million. First reported by GeekWire, the transaction is expected to close later this year, pending customary regulatory approvals. Once complete, Protect AI’s 120-person team including its founding leadership will join Palo Alto Networks’ expanding security portfolio.

Protect AI was founded in 2022 by Ian Swanson, Badar Ahmed, and Daryan Dehghanpisheh, former engineering leaders from Amazon, AWS, and Oracle. The company builds tools that monitor and secure every layer of the AI/ML development lifecycle, from data ingestion to deployment. Its software focuses on securing machine learning systems from risks such as training data poisoning, prompt injection, model manipulation, and AI supply chain vulnerabilities—areas where traditional security tools offer limited coverage.

The acquisition is directly tied to Palo Alto’s launch of Prisma AIRS, short for AI Runtime Security, which debuted at the RSA Conference in San Francisco. The new platform offers protection across the AI lifecycle and includes features like model scanning, runtime threat detection, AI red teaming, posture management, and autonomous agent security.

“As AI-powered applications become core to businesses, they bring risks traditional security tools can’t adequately handle,” said Anand Oswal, SVP and GM at Palo Alto Networks. “By extending our AI security capabilities to include Protect AI’s innovative solutions, businesses will be able to build AI applications with comprehensive security.”