Cheaper AI is making cyberattacks easier and more frequent, which is turning into a growth wave for cybersecurity stocks like CrowdStrike — good for investors in the space, bad for companies getting hacked.

• The cost of running AI models is collapsing, largely thanks to cheap open models from Chinese firms like DeepSeek and Alibaba.
• Cheap AI means more attacks from criminals and countries like Iran, Russia and China — Boston Scientific was just hacked and sent thousands of employees home.
• That pushes companies to spend far more on defense, and CrowdStrike jumped 19% in a day after strong earnings.
• Wall Street pencils in about 20% growth for CrowdStrike; the real number could be double that or more as security budgets inflect.
• The catch: the stock is expensive, the company is only just turning profitable, and much of the recent boom could fade if AI adoption cools.

Outlook: Expect security spending to keep accelerating as more AI agents run on more devices, though richly priced names like CrowdStrike leave little room for disappointment.