Reports surfaced overnight that Palo Alto Networks is looking to acquire Israeli cybersecurity firm SentinelOne.

A CTech report cites “industry rumors” that the pair are in advanced negotiations, with SentinelOne valued between $8 billion and $10 billion.

Founded in 2013, SentinelOne offers AI-powered cybersecurity solutions, with its flagship Singularity platform designed to detect and respond to cybersecurity attacks targeting enterprise assets.

Its stock price surged in the wake of the reports, rising from $18.09 to a high of $20.77 before petering back down.

No official confirmation has been given of a purported deal, with a Palo Alto Networks spokesperson telling SDxCentral: "We do not comment on rumor or speculation."

Palo Alto Networks has been a serial acquirer over its 20-year history, with notable pickups including Talon Cyber Security and Zycada Networks.

Just this week, it completed its acquisition of AI security firm Protect AI. No terms of that latest deal were disclosed, though reports suggest the fee to be upward of $500 million.

"Protect AI's capabilities are a powerful complement to our innovative Prisma AIRS platform, and scales our ability to provide both depth and breadth in AI security to deliver protection across the entire AI lifecycle," said Anand Oswal, SVP and GM of network security at Palo Alto Networks

Second time lucky?

It's the second time rumors of a potential SentinelOne takeover have surfaced. Back in 2023, reports emerged that rival Wiz was looking to buy SentinelOne.

The pair previously enjoyed a resale agreement, but the partnership was terminated by SentinelOne “as a result of [Wiz’s] continued lack of execution against their commitments,” the firm told CRN at the time.

Wiz has since been subject to an ongoing $32 billion takeover from Google, with the Department of Justice (DOJ) recently greenlighting the deal, following reservations that the acquisition could limit rivals' access to security tools. That deal is expected to close in 2026 in what would be Google’s most expensive acquisition in the company’s history.

SentinelOne is no stranger to acquisitions, having snapped up Attivo Networks in a $616.5 million deal in March 2022. The purchase enabled the Israeli firm to add identity-based threat protection to its extended detection and response (XDR) platform.

Its other purchases include Bengaluru-based cloud security platform PingSafe and the Krebs Stamos Group.

Earlier this year, SentinelOne unveiled a team-up with CyberArk. The partnership sees the Israeli-based CyberArk integrate its identity data into the SentinelOne platform to guard against privileged access misuse.

Clearances revoked amid spat with Trump

SentinelOne drew the ire of the Trump administration, with the President demanding its security clearances be cancelled after SentinelOne hired Chris Krebs, the former head of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) during Trump’s first term.

Krebs was fired by tweet after he refused to back the President’s claims that the 2020 U.S. election was rigged.

In April, President Trump ordered an investigation into Krebs, while also suspending SentinelOne’s clearances “pending a review of whether such clearances are consistent with the national interest.”

“Krebs … is a significant bad-faith actor who weaponized and abused his government authority,” the order reads. “Krebs, through CISA, falsely and baselessly denied that the 2020 election was rigged and stolen, including by inappropriately and categorically dismissing widespread election malfeasance and serious vulnerabilities with voting machines.”