Company background Palo Alto Networks Inc is a global cybersecurity provider that was incorporated in 2005, debuted on the NYSE in July 2012, and is currently headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It serves enterprises, organisations, service providers, and government entities. Palo Alto is the largest cybersecurity company by market cap, at US$222bn. Investment highlights Non-discretionary spend anchored by tight regulation. The cybersecurity market is projected to reach US$240bn by 2026, led by software-as-a-defence that shifts to the cloud. Growth is driven by rising threats and tightening regulation, making cyber a mission-critical spend (12–15% of IT budgets), supported by high breach costs and mandatory compliance requirements, thereby reinforcing recurring demand. Platformization drives upsell and growth. Enterprises are consolidating away from 29 niche vendors toward platform leaders like PANW, reducing complexity while improving data sharing and threat response. This underpins stronger upsell and cross-sell, reflected in 119% NRR and leads to over 20% RPO growth. At the core is Next-Generation Security (NGS), a cloud-based, AI-driven platform that generates recurring ARR. More AI, more threats, more PANW. Over 80% of phishing is now AI-generated and deepfake fraud has surged 21x since 2022, making cyber risk persistent. Enterprises now view AI-native security as mission-critical, driving a market projected to grow from US$30bn in 2025 to US$86bn by 2030. PANW is well-positioned with Prisma AIRS and AgentiX, seeing strong traction with 3x QoQ growth. Leans on Inorganic Growth to Broaden TAM. PANW uses acquisitions to accelerate growth, supported by strong operating cash flow, enabling rapid capability expansion beyond its firewall origins. Since 2018, it has completed 21 deals, building a diversified platform across SOC, cloud, and SASE while extending into observability and identity, driving TAM expansion from US$19bn to an estimated US$300bn by 2028. We initiate coverage with an ACCUMULATE recommendation and target price of