‘Fight fire with fire’: Databricks is buying Panther Labs to challenge Splunk and CrowdStrike with AI

https://media.thenextweb.com/2026/06/databricks-agrees-acquire-panther.avif

Databricks has a new pitch for the AI age of cyberattacks: fight fire with fire.

The $134bn data-and-AI company said it will buy Panther Labs, a cybersecurity startup, as it pushes deeper into a market dominated by Splunk and CrowdStrike. It is Databricks’ third security acquisition, a sign of how seriously it is taking the business. The companies did not disclose the price.

Defend with agents

The logic is simple, if alarming. AI has slashed the time attackers need to find and exploit a software flaw. Attackers now use AI to hunt for weaknesses across cloud and SaaS systems faster than human defenders can respond.

“If they’re going to attack you with agents, you have to defend with agents,” Databricks chief executive Ali Ghodsi told Reuters. The old way of managing security alerts, he said, is “dead”.

Panther is built for that fight. It pulls a company’s security data into...

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