It's not about being overrun by AI, but about mastering AI! Cybersecurity giant CrowdStrike(CRWD.US) beats all expectations across the board

The Tong Finance APP has learned that the cybersecurity giant CrowdStrike Holdings Inc. (CRWD.US) announced its Q4 FY2026 earnings report and the latest outlook for the next quarter and FY2027 on Wednesday morning Beijing time. Undoubtedly, CrowdStrike’s strong financial results and above-market expectations for future performance are enough to clearly weaken the extreme pessimistic narrative that “AI will rapidly disrupt cybersecurity software and crush the growth logic of existing cybersecurity platform vendors.” CrowdStrike’s robust performance data tells investors that the AI-driven cybersecurity super tools previously launched by Anthropic are not enough to pose a significant threat to platform-based cybersecurity giants.

The Q4 FY2026 results show that CrowdStrike’s total revenue was approximately $1.305 billion, a significant year-over-year increase of 23%, surpassing the average Wall Street analyst estimate of about $1.3 billion. Subscription revenue reached about $1.242 billion, up 23% YoY; non-GAAP adjusted EPS for the quarter was $1.12, up 38%, exceeding the analyst expectation of around $1.10. As of January 31, 2026, the company’s annual recurring revenue (ARR) grew sharply by 24% YoY to $5.25 billion, with $330.7 million of new net ARR in the quarter—up 47% YoY, setting a record and far exceeding analyst expectations of about $300 million.

Other key performance indicators for Q4 FY2026 include: non-GAAP operating profit of approximately $326 million, up 45% YoY; Falcon Flex account ARR of about $1.69 billion, up over 120%; Flex customer count exceeding 1,600; Cloud Security ARR over $800 million, up 35%; Next-Gen SIEM (LogScale) ARR of $585 million, up 75%; Next-Gen Identity ARR of about $520 million, up 34%.

Regarding market-focused outlooks, for Q1 FY2027, CrowdStrike’s management expects ARR between $5.5018 billion and $5.5038 billion, total revenue around $1.36 billion to $1.364 billion, slightly above the average analyst estimate of about $1.36 billion, and non-GAAP adjusted EPS between $1.06 and $1.07, roughly in line with analyst expectations.

For the full FY2027 outlook, management projects ARR between $6.4658 billion and $6.5164 billion, total revenue approximately $5.8676 billion to $5.9276 billion, higher than the average analyst estimate of about $5.86 billion to $5.87 billion, and adjusted non-GAAP EPS between $4.78 and $4.90, slightly above expectations.

In summary, CrowdStrike’s latest earnings report can be characterized as a “Q4 double beat, much stronger ARR and net new ARR, Q1 outlook slightly above expectations, full-year results surpassing forecasts”—a comprehensive strong beat.

Wedbush, a well-known Wall Street investment firm, recently released a research report stating that channel surveys show no signs of companies canceling cybersecurity orders due to AI replacement concerns. Instead, the surge in AI-driven threats is driving enterprises to adopt advanced defense systems like CrowdStrike Falcon. Wedbush maintains a “buy” rating on CrowdStrike stock with a target price of $600 and added that CrowdStrike will be a core winner on Wedbush’s IVES AI 30 list (top 30 US AI tech stocks) in 2026. As of Tuesday’s close, CrowdStrike’s stock price was $391.42.

Market pessimism about AI disrupting everything has heavily impacted sectors like software.

According to top Wall Street institutions like Goldman Sachs, the current US stock market is more likely in a high-probability phase of “experiencing a shakeout or retracement, attempting to break through 7,000 points, and then entering a new bull market.” Before a stronger bull run, the market may experience significant downward adjustments due to geopolitical tensions, tariff storms, the pessimistic “AI will disrupt everything” sentiment, and other negative factors.

After the recent failed attempt to break 7,000, the “Anthropic storm” that heavily impacted software stocks continues to ferment globally—panic selling driven by fears of AI disruption persists. Coupled with recurring capital outflows and major geopolitical risks, the S&P 500 may initially follow a “painful path” downward.

With a series of innovative AI agents focused on proxy workflows being launched, capable of disrupting traditional industries and exerting downward pressure on broader economic prices, concerns that “AI superwaves” could compress corporate profits, disrupt employment, and trigger deflation have rapidly spread to sectors like software, private credit, real estate services, and insurance. The market’s pessimistic view of “AI disrupting everything” acts like dominoes, causing sectors from software, SaaS, PE, insurance, wealth management, real estate, property management, to logistics to fall sequentially, with profit expectations sharply declining. Over the past couple of weeks, AI has been sweeping through traditional industries one by one, prompting investors to accelerate selling potential “losers.”

Since February, the prevailing pessimism about AI disrupting everything has been driven by fears that viral AI agents like Claude and OpenClaw (formerly Clawdbot, Moltbot) could weaken the SaaS subscription revenue model of the entire software empire, leading to rare sell-offs. This panic has quickly spread to insurance, real estate, trucking, and other labor-intensive or revenue-based industries, which are perceived as being fully vulnerable to AI disruption.

The “Anthropic AI storm” intensified this selling pressure in late February, when Anthropic launched Claude Code Security, an AI-powered cybersecurity vulnerability scanner. This caused cybersecurity firms like CrowdStrike, Cloudflare, and Okta to plunge 8-10% in a single trading day. Subsequently, after Anthropic claimed its Claude Code tool could help enterprises automate processes on IBM systems with minimal barriers under AI guidance, IBM experienced its worst single-day stock decline in over 25 years.

CrowdStrike counters the pessimistic narrative with strong performance and outlook

While the “AI will disrupt everything” narrative has heavily impacted the digital asset and lightweight asset sectors of the US stock market, CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity giant, has used its robust earnings to counter this narrative.

If AI agents truly can rapidly “decentralize” platforms like CrowdStrike in the short term, investors would typically see sharply slowing net ARR growth, deteriorating platform penetration, slowing expansion of adjacent modules, and conservative full-year guidance. But what investors are seeing now is the opposite—record-breaking net ARR additions, strong Flex expansion, continued penetration of 6+/7+/8+ modules, and high growth in platform-level businesses like Cloud, SIEM, and Identity.

On February 22, when CrowdStrike’s stock plummeted due to the “Anthropic AI storm,” CEO George Kurtz posted on LinkedIn: “Artificial intelligence is powerful. It’s transformative. It will definitely make us safer. But AI has not eliminated the strong demand for cybersecurity platforms. On the contrary, it greatly enhances security.”

Even as society fully enters the AI era, some roles are booming, such as positions like FDE that embed models into enterprise workflows, which have grown 42-fold from 2023 to 2025. The stock market’s ultimate valuation may not simply be “software losing, AI winning.” The real positive themes are likely concentrated in two areas: first, AI deployment and governance infrastructure—platform-based integration service providers that help enterprises truly run AI, including cloud computing, model platforms, cybersecurity, data governance, identity and access management, auditing/security, observability, and workflow orchestration (e.g., CrowdStrike, Microsoft, Oracle, ServiceNow, SAP). As AI significantly improves efficiency and reduces marginal decision costs, platform software companies like CrowdStrike, Microsoft, and SAP could benefit from increased throughput and stronger unit economics, rather than being completely replaced. The second area is the most solid global market segment—AI data center computing power and power supply chains.

Kurtz stated in the latest earnings report: “The AI revolution creates enormous growth opportunities for CrowdStrike. Our technology, team, and ecosystem are capable of continuing to succeed.”

From a foundational IT/security architecture perspective, AI will not reduce security needs—in fact, it will expand security from endpoint to identity, cloud, data, workflows, models, agents, and browser runtime. A recent threat report from CrowdStrike provides strong industry evidence: AI-driven attacks increased 89% YoY, with average breakout times compressed to just 29 minutes. This means attackers are using AI to enhance reconnaissance, credential theft, evasion, and lateral movement. Without unified telemetry, real-time correlation analysis, automated investigation, and response capabilities, defenders will be overwhelmed.

Therefore, Kurtz has been emphasizing new risks from AI agents, prompt injection, and AI-powered hacking tools. This is contrary to recent market fears that “AI will devalue security software.” In reality, AI automates attacks, generalizes identities, and makes access more dynamic, increasing the necessity for platform-based security centers like CrowdStrike that actively incorporate cutting-edge AI technology. As a result, CrowdStrike benefits from the AI training wave and, more deeply and sustainably, from the proliferation of reasoning/Agent AI agents.