'Every enterprise will run on AI, and securing it is the largest market opportunity in our history,' CEO George Kurtz says

CrowdStrike has benefited from growing cybersecurity concerns raised by artificial-intelligence advancements.

Shares of CrowdStrike are roaring after the company revealed a record-breaking quarter, partially boosted by fears about the power of artificial intelligence.

The second quarter "was the best quarter in CrowdStrike's history," CrowdStrike (CRWD) CEO George Kurtz said in a statement. "The Mythos moment translated into mass-market acceptance that AI adoption needs security."

Earlier this year, Anthropic introduced Claude Mythos, an AI model that is said to be very good at finding and exploiting security vulnerabilities. Concerns over the capabilities of Mythos and other AI models have made cybersecurity a growing focus of technology companies. That's one reason cybersecurity stocks like CrowdStrike have seen strong performance thisi year.

"Every enterprise will run on AI, and securing it is the largest market opportunity in our history," Kurtz added.

CrowdStrike's stock rose more than 10% in after-hours action on Wednesday. The stock has already risen more than 60% so far this year.

The company reported fiscal second-quarter total revenue of $1.47 billion, up 26% compared to a year earlier. Annual recurring revenue, a metric that helps companies show the income they expect to receive from customers, grew 25% from a year before to $5.84 billion as of July 31. Wall Street had expected weaker growth on both metrics, according to FactSet data.

CrowdStrike also achieved record free cash flow and new net annual recurring revenue, according to CFO Burt Podbere. The company posted net income of $322.9 million, compared with $237.4 million a year earlier. That new figure was also above the $302 million FactSet consensus view.

The company issued a fiscal third-quarter outlook that calls for annual recurring revenue of up to $6.19 billion, compared to the $5.79 billion expected by analysts, according to FactSet. Additionally, the company boosted its forecast for ARR and total revenue for its 2027 fiscal year, which ends in January.

-William Gavin