CrowdStrike to Buy Two AI Security Startups for About $495M and Debuts AI Kill Switch

CRWD said on Tuesday it has signed definitive agreements to acquire two AI security startups: Fiddler AI, which monitors AI agents running inside enterprises, and Dreadnode, which automates security testing of AI models, apps and agents. CrowdStrike did not disclose terms, but The Wall Street Journal reported it is paying around $400 million for Fiddler AI and about $95 million for Dreadnode, roughly $495 million in total. According to CrowdStrike's releases, both deals are to be paid mostly in cash, with a portion in stock subject to vesting, and are expected to close in its fourth quarter of fiscal 2027.

Alongside the deals, CrowdStrike launched an AI kill switch inside Falcon Guardian, its platform for securing AI agents launched in September. The tool lets security teams stop an internal agent that goes rogue, block it from relaunching and cut off its enterprise network access, with a human deciding whether flagged activity is malicious. CrowdStrike's release says enforcement starts at the gateway, with endpoint-level termination coming later. The company also announced a Falcon Guardian integration with Anthropic's Claude Cowork.

The moves put CrowdStrike deeper into a race among security vendors to buy their way into protecting AI agents, a market TechCrunch described as taking off. Fiddler, founded in 2018, has raised about $99 million, and Dreadnode, founded in 2023, has raised $14 million. Shares rose about 1.2% on the day, per SentiSense price data.

What to watch: how quickly Fiddler's technology ships as Falcon Observe and Dreadnode's testing reaches general availability, both slated for fiscal fourth quarter 2027, and whether AI-related products start to show up as a disclosed contributor to annual recurring revenue.