Palo Alto Networks' Nir Zuk Raises $45M Seed for Cylake
Cybersecurity veteran Nir Zuk's new startup Cylake scores a massive $45M seed round for AI-powered, cloud-free security.
Nir Zuk isn't done shaking up cybersecurity. The Palo Alto Networks co-founder just pulled in a $45 million seed round for Cylake, his new venture building an AI-powered cybersecurity platform that deliberately sidesteps the public cloud.
That's a monster seed round by any standard, and the founding team explains why investors are throwing money at it. Zuk teamed up with Wilson Xu, a veteran engineering leader from Palo Alto Networks, and Ehud (Udi) Shamir, who co-founded SentinelOne. That's a combined résumé covering two of the biggest names in enterprise security.
The pitch is straightforward: bring serious AI capabilities to cybersecurity without relying on public cloud infrastructure. For organizations with strict data sovereignty or privacy requirements, that's a compelling proposition. Whether Cylake can deliver on the promise remains to be seen, but few teams have better credentials to try.