CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. earnings call
Raised FY27 net new ARR guidance to accelerate over FY26
CrowdStrike reported a strong Q1 with record net new ARR and revenue, and raised its full-year guidance significantly. Management attributes this surge to an 'inflection point' in the market for AI security, driven by the release of new frontier AI models and a consequent urgent need to protect enterprise AI adoption. Record Q1 net new ARR of $255.8M, up 32% YoY, and total revenue of $1.39B, up 26% YoY.
Buzzberg read Raised FY27 net new ARR guidance to accelerate over FY26 CrowdStrike reported a strong Q1 with record net new ARR and revenue, and raised its full-year guidance significantly. Management attributes this surge to an 'inflection point' in the market for AI security, driven by the release of new frontier AI models and a consequent urgent need to protect enterprise AI adoption. Record Q1 net new ARR of $255.8M, up 32% YoY, and total revenue of $1.39B, up 26% YoY. Read full analysisCollapse analysis
CrowdStrike reported a strong Q1 with record net new ARR and revenue, and raised its full-year guidance significantly. Management attributes this surge to an 'inflection point' in the market for AI security, driven by the release of new frontier AI models and a consequent urgent need to protect enterprise AI adoption. Record Q1 net new ARR of $255.8M, up 32% YoY, and total revenue of $1.39B, up 26% YoY.
- Raised FY27 net new ARR growth forecast by 520 basis points to 27.7% at the midpoint.
- Announced a 4-for-1 stock split.
- Hiring of Dr. Bartley Richardson from NVIDIA as Chief AI and Autonomous System Officer.
What matters now
The highest-signal changes from the call.
AI is driving compounding, structural cybersecurity demand
AIDR pipeline exceeds $50 million after 250% sequential ARR growth
Show 3 more callouts
CrowdStrike is the only security vendor selected by both Anthropic and OpenAI
Management sees AIDR as a larger opportunity than EDR
Announced four-for-one stock split to broaden investor access
Actuals
| Metric | Reported | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $1.3856B | +6% QoQ |
| EPS | $0.28 | +0% QoQ |
| Gross margin | 75.3% | Reported |
| Operating margin | -2.21% | Reported |
| Free cash flow | $0.4933B | +31% QoQ |
| Capex | $0.0976B | Reported |
Forward guidance
| Metric | Period | Range | Midpoint | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EPS | FY2027 | $4.88–$4.96 | $4.92 | Guided |
| EPS | FY2027 Q2 | $1.16–$1.17 | $1.17 | Guided |
| Free cash flow | FY2027 | 30% | 30% | Guided |
| Free cash flow | FY2027 Q2 | 24.5% | 24.5% | Guided |
| Operating margin | FY2027 Q2 | $0.346B–$0.349B | $0.3475B | Guided |
| Revenue | FY2027 Q2 | $1.436B–$1.442B | $1.439B | Guided |
| Revenue | FY2027 | $5.915B–$5.959B | $5.937B | Guided |
Management read
Bullish
Management repeatedly emphasized an AI-driven demand inflection, record pipeline strength, and raised full-year guidance, describing CrowdStrike as the 'picks and shovels' provider for the AI gold rush.
Management AI read
Management framed the quarter as an AI-driven inflection point ('mythos moment'), with CrowdStrike positioned as critical AI infrastructure for frontier labs and enterprises. AI adoption is expanding attack surfaces via agents, non-human identities, and cloud workloads, driving demand for AIDR, next-gen SIEM, cloud, and identity. They see AIDR as a larger opportunity than EDR and raised full-year
Companiesreturns since call
Partners
The hire of NVIDIA's AI security lead deepens the NVIDIA-CrowdStrike partnership, potentially embedding CrowdStrike's security into NVIDIA's AI infrastructure.
Evidence
“He joins CrowdStrike from longtime strategic partner, NVIDIA, where he led agentic AI and cybersecurity AI.”
System integrators like Accenture are building agents on the Falcon platform, expanding CrowdStrike's reach into enterprise deployments.
Evidence
“Partners including Accenture, AWS, Anthropic, Deloitte, NVIDIA, OpenAI, and Salesforce are building specialized security agents”
CrowdStrike is a founding security partner for Anthropic's new frontier model releases, indicating strong demand and strategic integration for both companies.
Evidence
“CrowdStrike was the only cybersecurity company selected by both Anthropic and OpenAI from the very start to secure these new models”
CrowdStrike's founding role in OpenAI's cyber program points to a deep, strategic partnership that could funnel customers to both companies.
Evidence
“OpenAI announced GPT 5.5 Cyber, later known as Daybreak, where we were selected as a founding member of their trusted access for cyber program.”
Supply-chain alpha · 4returns since call
The 'Mythos moment' (new frontier model) has created an immediate, board-level urgency to secure AI, leading to a 'panic' of vulnerability discovery and remediation.
Evidence
“The discussion evolved from, is AI going to disrupt cybersecurity, to organizations and even the frontier AI labs relying on Falcon as their AI-powered defender for the post-mythos era.”
CrowdStrike's AIDR (AI Detection and Response) product is seeing explosive adoption, growing 250% sequentially with a $50M+ pipeline.
Evidence
“AIDR is quickly becoming a new growth pillar in our business, with ending ARR growing more than 250% sequentially”
An eight-figure win at a major U.S. government agency involved replacing legacy AV and EDR across 200,000 hosts, signaling a major public sector refresh.
Evidence
“We replaced a legacy AV, an operating system EDR, and a legacy vulnerability management point product across more than 200,000 hosts.”
The demand signal is not just from security budgets; it is incremental, funded by massive 'token budgets' being created for AI adoption.
Methodology & coverage
Management-only analysis. All 6 validated company mentions are shown. Reported actuals and forward guidance are kept separate. Public evidence is limited to eight short attributed quotes. AI-generated analysis can be incomplete or wrong; verify important claims against the original source.