Palo Alto Networks Acquires AI Gateway Startup Portkey for $130M

Palo Alto Networks Acquires AI Gateway Startup Portkey for $130M

Palo Alto Networks is acquiring Portkey, an Elevation Capital-backed startup that provides AI gateway technology for managing, routing, and securing AI agent traffic, in a deal valued at $120M–$140M. Portkey's gateway sits between enterprise applications and AI model providers, giving security teams observability and control over agent interactions. The acquisition signals that major cybersecurity vendors view AI agent governance as a core security surface — not an application-layer add-on.

Why It Matters

As enterprises deploy agentic workflows at scale, AI gateway infrastructure becomes a security control point. Palo Alto's move positions it as the incumbent security vendor for AI agent pipelines.