PANW Deepens Ties With Google: Will This Enhance Prisma AIRS Adoption?

Palo Alto Networks PANW is strengthening its partnership with Google Cloud to support secure artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud adoption. This expanded partnership places Prisma AI Runtime Security (AIRS), Palo Alto Networks’ AI security platform, directly inside Google Cloud’s AI and developer services. The aim is to secure AI workloads from development through production.

Palo Alto Networks recently announced that it is expanding its partnership with Google Cloud. Under the expanded partnership agreement, Palo Alto Networks’ Prisma AIRS will be integrated with Google Cloud services, such as Vertex AI and Agent Engine. This will allow customers to secure AI models, data, and agents while they are running on Google Cloud. The partnership also includes deeper use of Palo Alto Networks’ software firewalls and Secured Access Service Edge products on Google Cloud. This helps customers apply the same security policies across cloud, AI, and network environments. 

Prisma AIRS checks prompts, responses, and agent actions in real time. This helps reduce risks, such as prompt injection, data leakage, and misuse of tools. Because security is built directly into these platforms, customers do not need to deploy separate security products to protect AI agents. Apart from Google Cloud, PANW has integrated Prisma AIRS with several other AI agent platforms, including Factory, Glean, IBM, and ServiceNow. These integrations secure AI agents inside tools that customers already use.

The above-mentioned factors highlight the growing adoption of Prisma AIRS. Furthermore, the number of Prisma AIRS deals more than doubled on a sequential basis during the first quarter of fiscal 2026, highlighting Prisma AIRS’ rising usage.

With rising AI adoption and as customers shift toward more integrated platforms, Prisma AIRS’ surging usage could support PANW's future growth. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for fiscal 2026 and 2027 indicates revenue growth of around 14.1% and 13.3%, respectively.

How Competitors Fare Against PANW

CrowdStrike CRWD and Okta Inc. OKTA are key players competing with CrowdStrike, which are focusing on partnerships and acquisitions for platform expansion and AI innovation.

During the third quarter of fiscal 2026, CrowdStrike expanded its partnership with Amazon Web Services (“AWS”). CrowdStrike’s Falcon Next-Generation Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) is now available directly inside AWS Security Hub. This means AWS customers can start using Falcon SIEM more easily, without extra setup. The management believes that this creates a larger pool of potential users and gives CrowdStrike more chances to turn usage into paid subscriptions, often through the Falcon Flex model.

Okta completed its acquisition of Axiom Security in September 2025. Through this acquisition, Okta has added new tools for privileged access management, helping customers control who can reach sensitive cloud, SaaS and database systems.

PANW’s Price Performance, Valuation & Estimates

Shares of Palo Alto Networks have lost 10.2% in the past three months compared with the Zacks Security industry’s decline of 8.4%.

PANW 3-month Price Return Performance

From a valuation standpoint, Palo Alto Networks trades at a forward price-to-sales ratio of 11.77X compared with the industry’s average of 11.79X.

PANW Forward 12-Month P/S Ratio

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Palo Alto Networks’ fiscal 2026 and 2027 earnings implies year-over-year growth of 14.7% and 12.5%, respectively. Estimates for fiscal 2026 have been revised upward by 4 cents over the past 30 days, while the estimates for fiscal 2027 have been revised downward by a penny over the past seven days.

Palo Alto Networks currently carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).

You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report

This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

Zacks Investment Research