Nikesh Arora

Special Guest: Nikesh Arora, CEO @ Palo Alto Networks. AGENDA: 04:50 Airtable Sold to Bending Spoons for $1.285B 17:00 Leo Aschenbrenner's Situational Awareness Blows Up as Citadel Buys His $16BN Book 22:30 Anthropic's AI Models Breach Three Companies as Cyber Threat Accelerates 33:35 Moonshot AI Raises $3.5B at $35B as Chinese Models Crush AI Prices 38:05 Valar Atomics Triples to $6B as Sequoia Bets on Nuclear Power for AI 42:50 OpenAI and Anthropic Could Trigger a Massive Public-Market Dislocation 52:55 Big Tech and Palantir Earnings Ignite the Next Phase of the AI Gold Rush 1:04:30 Procore Buys DroneDeploy for $900M in a High-Stakes 12x Revenue Bet 1:10:55 Scale AI Hits $1.5B ARR After the Meta Deal Left It for Dead

Nikesh Arora

Chairman & CEO, Palo Alto Networks

Palo Alto Networks

Nikesh Arora is the Chairman and CEO of Palo Alto Networks, the global cybersecurity leader. Since taking over in 2018, he has transformed the company from an $18 billion market cap business into one worth more than $225BN with more than 21,000 employees globally. Previously, Nikesh was President and COO of SoftBank, where he worked alongside Masayoshi Son and helped shape the firm's technology investment strategy. AGENDA: 00:00 Why AI Token Prices Will Fall 90% — And Why That's Bullish for AI 07:40 The Frontier Model Problem: Breadth vs Depth in AI 11:30 Most Enterprises Are Using AI Completely Wrong 13:10 Why AI Could Cut Marketing, HR & Finance Teams in Half 16:00 AI Applications Will Have Opinions — SaaS Never Did 20:00 OpenAI, Anthropic & The Most Important Valuation Question in Tech 24:00 The Real Business Model of AI: Transaction Revenue Beats Advertising 25:10 Why Token Prices Must Collapse 28:20 Where Value Actually Accrues in AI: Models, Memory or Apps? 29:00 Why Memory Becomes the Biggest Moat in AI 32:00 Why Every Enterprise Should Be Scared Right Now 33:15 Should Governments Regulate Frontier AI Models? 37:10 Why Brian Armstrong's AI-First Playbook Doesn't Work Everywhere 40:00 The Biggest AI Mistake CEOs Are Making Today 42:00 How Nikesh Creates Darwinian Competition Inside Palo Alto 43:00 Do AI Companies Really Need Forward-Deployed Engineers? 45:00 Why Enterprise AI Products Still Aren't Ready 52:00 Systems of Record vs Systems of Intelligence: The Future of Software 54:00 Why AI Applications Will Replace Traditional SaaS Workflows 58:00 What Nikesh Learned From Google That Still Matters Today 1:04:00 From $200 and Two Suitcases to Running a $225B Company 1:10:00 Happiness, Gratitude and Why Tomorrow Matters More Than Ten Years From Now

Nikesh Arora

Chairman & CEO, Palo Alto Networks

Palo Alto Networks

(0:00) Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora joins the Besties! (0:47) Claude Mythos found years of vulnerabilities in Palo Alto's code in weeks (5:15) Are cyber defenders losing the race against AI attackers? (6:50) Analytical SaaS is dead, so what survives the AI wave? (14:06) If models become a utility, where will the money be made? (20:35) Armchair CEO: Nikesh rates Waymo, Google, and OpenAI (28:22) Palo Alto's M&A playbook and the path to $1 trillion Thanks to our partners for making this possible! EY - AI ambition isn't enough. EY.ai Value Blueprints move organizations beyond pilots embedding measurable business value by design. https://www.ey.com/en_us/services/ai/value-blueprints?WT.mc_id=3501320&AA.tsrc=sponsorship NYSE - Thank you to our partner, the New York Stock Exchange - a modern marketplace and exchange for building the future. It all happens at the NYSE. https://www.nyse.com Plaud - Never miss a moment. Plaud, our official wearable AI note-taking partner at All-In Liquidity Summit, captured every insight. https://www.plaud.ai Follow Nikesh: https://x.com/nikesharora Follow the besties: https://x.com/chamath https://x.com/Jason https://x.com/DavidSacks https://x.com/friedberg Follow on X: https://x.com/theallinpod Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theallinpod Follow on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@theallinpod Follow on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/allinpod Intro Music Credit: https://rb.gy/tppkzl https://x.com/yung_spielburg

Nikesh Arora

Chairman & CEO, Palo Alto Networks

Palo Alto Networks

This week, between the president’s negotiations in China and a potential executive order, we discuss why the Trump administration seems to be changing its tune on A.I. safety. Then, Nikesh Arora, chief executive of Palo Alto Networks, the largest cybersecurity company in the world, gives us a firsthand account of where we stand in the race to secure the internet. And finally, we run through some of the wildest headlines of the week in a round of Hot Mess Express. Guest: Nikesh Arora, chief executive and chairman of Palo Alto Networks. Additional Reading: White House Considers Vetting A.I. Models Before They Are Released Chief Executives to Accompany Trump to China Is Anthropic’s New A.I. Really That Scary? It Depends Whom You Ask. Venmo Finally Takes Privacy Seriously Amazon Staff Use A.I. Tool for Unnecessary Tasks to Inflate Usage Scores Graduates Boo Commencement Speech About A.I. Dua Lipa Files $15 Million Suit Against Samsung for Using Her Face to Sell TVs EBay Rejects GameStop’s $55 Billion Takeover Bid Shein, Temu Trade Blows as UK Trial Spotlights Supply Chains People Are Seriously Pissed That Grindr Outed Them With Its Latest Madonna Advert Sam Altman Testifies That Elon Musk Wanted Control of OpenAI We want to hear from you. Email us at hardfork@nytimes.com. Find “Hard Fork” on YouTube and TikTok. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Nikesh Arora

Chairman & CEO, Palo Alto Networks

Palo Alto Networks

Between the future of search, the biggest threats in cybersecurity, and the jobs and platforms of tomorrow, Nikesh Arora sees one common thread connecting and transforming them all—AI. Sarah Guo and Elad Gil sit down with Nikesh Arora, CEO of cybersecurity giant Palo Alto Networks and former Chief Business Officer of Google, to talk about a wide array of topics from agentic AI to leadership. Nikesh dives into the future of search, the disruptive potential of AI agents for existing business models, and how AI has both compressed the timeline for cyberattacks as well as fundamentally shifted defense strategies in cybersecurity. Plus, Nikesh shares his leadership philosophy, and why he’s so optimistic about AI. Sign up for new podcasts every week. Email feedback to show@no-priors.com Follow us on Twitter: @NoPriorsPod | @Saranormous | @EladGil | @nikesharora | @PaloAltoNtwks Chapters: 00:00 – Nikesh Arora Introduction 00:39 – Nikesh on the Future of Search 04:46 – Shifting to an Agentic Model of Search 08:12 – AI-as-a-Service 16:55 – State of Enterprise Adoption 20:15 – Gen AI and Cybersecurity 27:35 – New Problems in Cybersecurity in the AI Age 29:53 – Deepfakes, Spearfishing, and Other Attacks 32:56 – Expanding Products at Palo Alto 35:49 – AI Agents and Human Replaceability 44:28 – Nikesh’s Thoughts on Growth at Scale 46:52 – Nikesh’s Leadership Tips 51:14 – Nikesh on Ambition 54:18 – Nikesh’s Thoughts on AI 58:21 – Conclusion

Nikesh Arora

Chairman & CEO, Palo Alto Networks

Palo Alto Networks

Palo Alto Networks’s CEO Nikesh Arora dispels DeepSeek hype by detailing all of the guardrails enterprises need to have in place to give AI agents “arms and legs.” No matter the model, deploying applications for precision-use cases means superimposing better controls. Arora emphasizes that the real challenge isn’t just blocking threats but matching the accelerated pace of AI-powered attacks, requiring a fundamental shift from prevention-focused to real-time detection and response systems. CISOs are risk managers, but legacy companies competing with more risk-tolerant startups need to move quickly and embrace change.  Hosted by: Sonya Huang and Pat Grady, Sequoia Capital  Mentioned in this episode: Cortex XSIAM: Security operations and incident remediation platform from Palo Alto Networks

Nikesh Arora

Chairman & CEO, Palo Alto Networks

Palo Alto Networks

Nikesh Arora is the CEO @ Palo Alto Networks, the leading cybersecurity company in the world with a market cap of $102BN. Before joining Palo Alto Networks, Nikesh was the President and COO of SoftBank Group. Before that, he spent ten years at Google as a senior exec, and President of Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Before that Nikesh was CMO for the T-Mobile International Division of Deutsche Telekom AG. Nikesh serves on the board of Compagnie Financière Richemont S.A. Previously, he served on the boards of SoftBank, Sprint, Colgate-Palmolive Inc., Yahoo! Japan and Tipping Point. In Today's Episode with Nikesh Arora We Discuss: 1. From Investing with Masa @ Softbank to CEO of Largest Cyber Company: What are Nikesh's biggest lessons from working and investing with Masa @ Softbank? What are Nikesh's biggest takeaways from 10 years at Google and working with Eric Schmidt? What does Nikesh know now that he wishes he had known when he started his career? 2. What Makes the Most Valuable Businesses in the World: How does Nikesh think about competition and monopolies? How does Nikesh assess the idea of defensibility, moats and sustaining competitive advantages? What are the most common reasons why incumbents are overtaken? How have Palo Alto Networks been so successful in their M&A strategy? What has worked in M&A? What has not worked? What is their process? 3. What Makes the Best Leaders in the World: Does Nikesh agree that the best CEOs are the best resource allocators? How do the best leaders communicate with large teams at scale? How do the best leaders approach decision-making? What is Nikesh's framework? How does Nikesh approach the idea of delegation? What does he delegate vs what does he not? 4. Behind the CEO: Nikesh Arora: Husband and Father: How does Nikesh reflect on his own relationship to money today? What are Nikesh's biggest lessons in what it takes to bring children up in a world of affluence and ensure they have hunger and ambition? What are some of Nikesh's biggest lessons on parenting? How does Nikesh reflect on what it takes to have a great marriage?

Nikesh Arora

Chairman & CEO, Palo Alto Networks

Palo Alto Networks

Nikesh Arora became the CEO of Palo Alto Networks with no cybersecurity domain expertise and has grown the company from $18B to nearly $100B in under 6 years. In the episode, we discuss some of the greatest learnings from revolutionizing Palo Alto Networks into a powerhouse, his celebrated M&A strategy, and stories from his wide-ranging career path. Prior to Palo Alto Networks, Nikesh was Chairman and COO of Softbank, working alongside Masa to make investments. Before that, he spent time scaling T-Mobile in Europe as CMO then spent a decade at Google as CBO. Hear how Nikesh has consistently succeeded in each new role and built a prolific career across industries. (0:00) Intro (1:13) The Benefits of Being a Generalist (2:20) Acquiring Domain Expertise (4:05) The Constant Learning Curve in Cybersecurity (5:07) Understanding the Cybersecurity Industry (9:19) Nikesh's 3 Rules For M&A (20:04) The Role of Marketing and Storytelling in Tech (24:57) Leadership and Management in Large Companies (35:49) The Challenge of Scaling and Managing People (36:43) Transitioning Roles and the Importance of Skill Sets (38:01) The Art of Making Successful Career Choices (38:36) The Journey from Analyst to Tech Entrepreneur (43:44) The Impact of Artificial Intelligence in Business (50:43) The Importance of Product Obsession in Tech Leadership (52:52) The Journey from India to the U.S. and the Pursuit of Education (1:01:04) Venturing into the World of Investment and Venture Capital (1:05:54) The Mission-Driven Aspect of Cybersecurity (1:07:21) Romanticizing the Past: A Perspective on Life and Career   Produced: Rashad Assir & Leah Clapper Mixed and edited: Justin Hrabovsky Executive Producer: Josh Machiz   🎙 Listen to the show Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-logan-bartlett-show/id1606770839 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5WqBqDb4br3LlyVrdqOYYb?si=3076e6c1b5c94d63&nd=1 Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zaW1wbGVjYXN0LmNvbS9zb0hJZkhWbg   🎥 Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCugS0jD5IAdoqzjaNYzns7w?sub_confirmation=1   Follow on Socials 📸 Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/theloganbartlettshow 🐦 Twitter - https://twitter.com/loganbartshow 🎬 Clips on TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@theloganbartlettshow   About the Show Logan Bartlett is a Software Investor at Redpoint Ventures - a Silicon Valley-based VC with $6B AUM and investments in Snowflake, DraftKings, Twilio, and Netflix. In each episode, Logan goes behind the scenes with world-class entrepreneurs and investors. If you're interested in the real inside baseball of tech, entrepreneurship, and start-up investing, tune in every Friday for new episodes. Executive Producer: Rashad Assir Producer: Leah Clapper Mixing and editing: Justin Hrabovsky Check out Unsupervised Learning, Redpoint's AI Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@UCUl-s_Vp-Kkk_XVyDylNwLA 🎥 Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCugS0jD5IAdoqzjaNYzns7w?sub_confirmation=1 Follow on Socials 📸 Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/theloganbartlettshow 📱 X - https://twitter.com/loganbartshow 🎬 Clips on TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@theloganbartlettshow About the Show Logan Bartlett is a Software Investor at Redpoint Ventures - a Silicon Valley-based VC with $6B AUM and investments in Snowflake, DraftKings, Twilio, and Netflix. In each episode of The Logan Bartlett Show, we sit down with the people behind today’s most important startups and extract the tactics, lessons, and frameworks they’ve learned the hard way. Conversations span hiring to GTM, product, growth, fundraising and everything in between - collectively forming the ultimate playbook to make you a better CEO, investor or board member. Tap follow and enable notifications to stay ahead of the game.

Nikesh Arora

Chairman & CEO, Palo Alto Networks

Palo Alto Networks

This Week in Startups is brought to you by… OpenPhone. Create business phone numbers for you and your team that work through an app on your smartphone or desktop. TWiST listeners can get an extra 20% off any plan for your first 6 months at openphone.com/twist. Embroker. The Embroker Startup Insurance Program helps startups secure the most important types of insurance at a lower cost and with less hassle. Save up to 20% off of traditional insurance today at Embroker.com/twist. While you’re there, get an extra 10% off using offer code TWIST. LinkSquares. Life for in-house legal just got a whole lot easier. From contract creation to execution and more, LinkSquares is the go-to for all your legal needs. Learn more at linksquares.com/twist. * Today’s show: Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora joins Jason to discuss his time as head of Google Europe (2:26), strategies learned from Larry Page (15:23), precision AI’s role in cybersecurity (43:14), and much more! * Time stamps: (0:00) Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora joins Jason (2:26) Becoming head of Google Europe and meeting Eric Schmidt, Larry Page and Sergey Brin (10:15) OpenPhone - Get 20% off your first six months at https://openphone.com/twist (11:46) Maintaining Google’s culture in Europe and the hiring process (15:23) Applying strategies learned from Larry Page to Palo Alto Networks (17:59) Sub-categories of EQ manifested in the workplace (22:12) Embroker - Use code TWIST to get an extra 10% off insurance at https://Embroker.com/twist (23:41) What led Nikesh to be CEO of one of the top Cybersecurity firms (30:24) Cybersecurity against artificial intelligence (35:31) The SEC’s mandate on breach reporting (38:35) LinkSquares - The go-to for all your legal needs, learn more at https://linksquares.com/twist (39:51) The SEC’s mandate on breach reporting continued (45:54) Gains from AI and what it means for organizations (43:14) Precision AI’s role in security (53:14) The future of AI technology and the battle of the chatbots (57:41) Nikesh’s time at SoftBank working directly with Masayoshi Son * FOLLOW Nikesh: https://twitter.com/nikesharora * Read LAUNCH Fund 4 Deal Memo: https://www.launch.co/four Apply for Funding: https://www.launch.co/apply Buy ANGEL: https://www.angelthebook.com Great recent interviews: Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland, PrayingForExits, Jenny Lefcourt Check out Jason’s suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis * Follow Jason: Twitter: https://twitter.com/jason Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis * Follow TWiST: Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin * Subscribe to the Founder University Podcast: https://www.founder.university/podcast

Nikesh Arora

Chairman & CEO, Palo Alto Networks

Palo Alto Networks

Guest: Nikesh Arora, CEO and Chairman of Palo Alto Networks Nikesh Arora has been in the C-Suite for more than two decades, including a 10-year stint as Google’s chief business officer and — most recently — five years as Palo Alto Networks’ CEO. But the COVID-19 pandemic made him radically reconsider the gap between the executive floor and the rest of the company. “There was a tremendous amount of anxiety and fear and uncertainty,” he says, “and this person I was talking to says, ‘Listen, your job as a leader is to create certainty.’ [...] It’s simple: Tell your employees you have their back.” That’s why, for the past 30 months, Nikesh has been making time to virtually meet thousands of Palo Alto Networks employees on Zoom; he gets candid feedback, communicates company goals, and provides a safe space for everyone to bond. In this episode, Nikesh and Joubin discuss honest CEOs, not having a career plan, process vs. outcomes, remaining independent inside Google, organizational superpowers, understanding your competitors, “evergreen companies,” the ChatGPT disruption, integrating product and sales, blindfolded communication, Evian water, cloud vs. on-prem security, and problem solvers vs. problem representers. In this episode, we cover: Amazing people at Google (02:15) T-Motion and T-Mobile (04:05) “You cannot control the outcome” (07:36) Growing up in India (11:12) 400+ rejection letters (14:38) Loving what you do (18:26) Joining Google (19:55) Sergey Brin and Eric Schmidt (24:16) Relocating to “the mothership” (27:01) “He’s not Googly enough” (28:26) Profit, innovation, and paranoia (31:12) Cybersecurity and AI (34:04) SoftBank CEO Masa Son (38:54) Joining Palo Alto Networks (43:04) Hiring as home-building (47:04) “Nobody comes to work to screw up” (50:25) Product and the power of marketing (53:28) Cybersecurity “swim lanes” (56:36) M&A strategy (01:01:14) The two schools of due diligence (01:05:05) Moving past problems (01:07:42) Creating certainty for employees (01:10:59) Links: Connect with NikeshTwitter LinkedIn Connect with JoubinTwitter LinkedIn Email: grit@kleinerperkins.com  Learn more about Kleiner Perkins This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm

Nikesh Arora

Chairman & CEO, Palo Alto Networks

Palo Alto Networks