The idea
I believe corporate security spending is consolidating: companies are ditching dozens of point tools for a handful of AI-powered platforms, while AI-driven attacks force budgets higher and toward vendors who can keep up. This basket leans into the platform leaders in security, cloud, identity, and attack-surface monitoring, with two sector ETFs for ballast so no single name can sink it. I'm holding for one to two years and keeping 10% in cash to add to the core if the market overreacts to a bad quarter.
What it owns
- These companies are winning as enterprises replace point products with broader platforms, consolidating vendors and budgets onto fewer partners. · CrowdStrike HoldingsIt started at the endpoint and keeps expanding into adjacent security layers that customers adopt instead of buying separate tools., Palo Alto NetworksIt actively bundles tools to replace customers' point products, betting that platform consolidation accelerates faster than point-product spending., MicrosoftIt packages security into licenses enterprises already buy, making it the default consolidation choice for many organizations., FortinetIt converts its large installed base of firewalls into a broader platform as networking and security converge.32%
- These replace legacy network infrastructure with cloud-native services, capturing budgets freed up by the shift away from on-premises hardware. · ZscalerIt replaces the traditional corporate network perimeter with a cloud service, capturing budgets companies redirect from legacy infrastructure., CloudflareIt sits in front of enormous internet traffic and layers security and AI services onto that position, converting network customers into security buyers., Check Point SoftwareIt pushes a consolidated platform at profitable pricing, offering the take a value-oriented way to own the same consolidation trend., Akamai TechnologiesIts growth now comes from security and cloud services rather than content delivery, requiring security revenue to keep expanding as the pivot continues.20%
- These companies built AI into their core defense from the start, positioning them to handle the acceleration in both attack speed and data volume. · RubrikIt protects data after ransomware strikes and layers AI-driven security on top of that data, betting higher attack stakes push recovery spending upward., SentinelOneIt built AI into its endpoint defense from day one and undercuts CrowdStrike on price, making it a higher-risk bet on whether it can grow fast enough to survive consolidation., DatadogIt monitors everything running in cloud environments and is extending that visibility into security, converting monitoring customers into security buyers.14%
- These expose hidden vulnerabilities before attackers find them, a job that becomes more critical as AI-driven probing accelerates. · Varonis SystemsIt secures data itself by controlling who can access what, a job that grows more urgent as companies feed sensitive information into AI tools., QualysIt maps where companies are exposed to attack before adversaries find those gaps, a service that becomes more critical as AI-driven scanning accelerates., Tenable HoldingsIt maps everything a company exposes to the internet, a job that grows as AI lets attackers probe for vulnerabilities faster and at greater scale.10%
- These broad sector funds provide benefit from rising security spending across the industry, protecting against individual stock misses. · First Trust NASDAQ Cybersecurity ETFIt holds a broad basket of cybersecurity companies, benefiting from sector-wide spending growth even if individual consolidation winners differ from expectations., Amplify Cybersecurity ETFIt holds a second broad basket of cybersecurity companies, spreading ballast across different fund managers and holdings to capture sector spending growth.9%
- Identity controls are where most modern attacks begin, making them essential to any consolidated security stack. · OktaIt is the largest independent identity platform, essential to any consolidated security stack in an era when identity attacks lead most breaches.5%
- Cash10%