Rising AI Cyberattacks Fuel Demand for CrowdStrike, Sending Stock Up 20.5%

CrowdStrike Holdings (CRWD) stock jumped 20.5% after the cybersecurity firm posted record fiscal second-quarter results, with its CEO tying the surge in demand directly to rising artificial intelligence (AI) driven cyberattacks.

The company beat Wall Street’s revenue and profit targets and raised its full-year guidance following the report.

Record Quarter Driven by AI Threat Demand

CrowdStrike reported $1.47 billion in second-quarter revenue, up 26% year over year and above the $1.44 billion analysts expected. Adjusted earnings came in at $0.31 per share, topping the $0.29 consensus estimate.

Net new annual recurring revenue (ARR), a measure of new subscription commitments added during the quarter, hit a record $332.8 million, up 51% from a year earlier. Total ARR climbed 25% to $5.84 billion.

Founder and CEO George Kurtz tied the results to what he called the “Mythos moment.” This is a reference to Anthropic’s Mythos model launch. Reports say it is capable of exploiting previously unknown software flaws and has pushed AI security up enterprise priority lists.

“The Mythos moment translated into mass-market acceptance that AI adoption needs security, and that’s CrowdStrike. Every enterprise will run on AI, and securing it is the largest market opportunity in our history.”George Kurtz, CrowdStrike Founder and CEO

On the earnings call, Kurtz described an “arms race” in which AI is simultaneously driving more attacks and more security spending.

CrowdStrike raised its full-year net new ARR growth forecast by 630 basis points to roughly 34% at the midpoint. It also lifted full-year revenue guidance to between $5.99 billion and $6.01 billion.

The results echo CrowdStrike’s own prior research flagging AI-driven threats, and follow Jim Cramer’s stock picks naming cybersecurity as a top 2026 theme.

The results position CrowdStrike as one of several cybersecurity vendors benefiting from mounting enterprise anxiety over AI-enabled threats, a trend likely to shape spending priorities into the next earnings cycle.