Palo Alto Networks Strikes Expanded Google Cloud Deal as AI Security Takes Center Stage

Palo Alto Networks just did something that tells you exactly where the AI boom is starting to creak.

On Friday, the company announced a major expansion of its partnership with Google Cloud. On the surface, it looks like another big tech collaboration. Dig a little deeper and it’s clear this is a bet on what’s about to become the most painful problem in enterprise AI… security.

Palo Alto is migrating key internal workloads onto Google Cloud, embedding Google’s Gemini models into its security copilots, and building on Vertex AI to scale protection for live AI workloads. This isn’t a reseller agreement. It’s infrastructure-level commitment.

According to Reuters, one source pegged the deal at approaching $10 billion over several years. Neither company confirmed the number, which is usually how you know it’s real. Deals that big aren’t signed for “nice to have” reasons. They’re signed because something is breaking.

What’s breaking is the gap between how fast companies are deploying AI and how little protection those systems actually have.

Boards are pushing management to “use AI.” Engineers are spinning things up quickly. Security teams are left chasing moving targets they didn’t design. Palo Alto’s president BJ Jenkins basically said the quiet part out loud: companies want AI upside without accidentally blowing a hole through their own defenses.

That demand is already showing up. Palo Alto has more than 75 joint integrations with Google Cloud and has already generated over $2 billion in sales through Google’s marketplace. This new phase turns the relationship from cooperation into dependence. Customers can now secure live AI workloads directly on Google Cloud, unify policies, and stop duct-taping security tools together after the fact.

Google’s incentive is obvious. As AI reshapes competition with Amazon and Microsoft, security becomes a real edge. Paired with its pending $32 billion Wiz acquisition, this deal helps frame Google Cloud as the safest place to run AI without losing sleep.

There’s also history here. Palo Alto CEO Nikesh Arora spent years at Google before taking the helm at PANW. The two companies have been partners since 2018, long before AI took over earnings calls. This wasn’t rushed. It was waiting for the moment when it mattered.

The market reaction was muted. Palo Alto stock rose about 1%. Shares of Google parent Alphabet barely moved. But zoom out and the signal is pretty loud.

For the past year, the AI trade has been focused on supply… silicon, data centers, and the power to run them. But this partnership moves the focus to the next important part, which is securing AI systems well enough that companies feel comfortable expanding them. And that’s where Palo Alto just planted its flag.

At the time of publishing this article, Stocks.News holds positions in Google, Microsoft, and Amazon as mentioned in the article.