Cybersecurity Startups’ Revenue Surges on AI Threats

Cybersecurity startups such as Chainguard, Cyera, Cyberhaven and Island are growing quickly as increased use of AI leads to more opportunities for attacks.

Art by Clark Miller

Just as artificial intelligence has helped programmers slash the time it takes to write code, hackers are also finding it’s a productivity boon. The increased number of threats, along with risks from companies’ adoption of AI, has helped some cybersecurity startups grow more quickly.

Take Chainguard, a startup developing software to detect security vulnerabilities in open-source software, including the technology powering popular AI models such as Meta Platforms’ Llama models. The four-year-old startup has increased its annualized revenue nearly sevenfold in the past year, to roughly $40 million as of January, according to two people with knowledge of the financials.