Cybersecurity Stocks Jump As Anthropic CEO's AI Slowdown Call Sharpens Focus On Cyber Risks

Amodei warned that faster AI development could amplify risks including cyberattacks, loss of control and economic disruption.

Altman said that AI must stay aligned with human interests and avoid excessive concentration of power.

Cybersecurity stocks bucked the broader market selloff on Monday as fresh warnings from leading artificial intelligence executives put AI-driven cyberattack risks and demand for stronger security tools back in focus.

CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. ( CRWD ) rose more than 10%, Palo Alto Networks, Inc. ( PANW ) gained over 7%, Fortinet, Inc. ( FTNT ) climbed more than 5% and Okta, Inc. ( OKTA ) advanced 8%, even as the Nasdaq-100 fell more than 1%, at the time of this writing.

Cybersecurity Stocks Among Top Gainers

CRWD, PANW and FTNT were among the top Nasdaq-100 gainers. The Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ) fell as much as 1.5% as markets opened and was also among Stocktwits’ top trending tickers. Retail sentiment around QQQ remained ‘extremely bearish’.

This surge in cybersecurity stocks follows Anthropic Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dario Amodei's call to slow the pace at which frontier AI models gain capabilities, arguing that safety work needs more time to keep pace with rapidly improving systems.

Anthropic CEO Flags Cyberattack Risk

In an essay titled “We Must Pace the Frontier,” Amodei said AI risks include losing control of systems, misuse for cyberattacks and bioterrorism, and serious economic disruption. He stressed that “pacing” does not mean halting model training or technical progress.

Amodei proposed giving independent third-party evaluators ongoing access inside frontier AI companies, alongside broader industry and international coordination on safety.

In a post on X, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman subsequently backed the proposal, saying the need to pace frontier development had been a major topic of discussion inside OpenAI. Altman also said OpenAI would follow Anthropic in giving independent evaluators employee-like access. AI must remain aligned with human interests while avoiding excessive concentration of power in any one company, person or country, Altman warned .

Cybersecurity Opportunity Amid AI Safety Risk?

Last week Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) CEO Jensen Huang said at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia + Technology Conference that cybersecurity would likely be the major use case of AI, according to a Bloomberg report.

Huang said AI-driven programming automation is increasing the speed at which software can be exploited and the pace at which vulnerabilities must be fixed, potentially expanding demand for AI-powered cybersecurity tools.

So far this year, CRWD and PANW both have surged 104%, while OKTA and FTNT have rallied 117% and 112%, respectively.

Read also: Roger Altman Says AI Is ‘The Greatest Threat Facing The World’ Amid Calls For Stronger Guardrails

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