The next Nvidia? Little-known Crowdstrike could be 'next mega-cap' after stock surges 20% - as cybersecurity firm gets boost from companies worried about AI-fuelled hacks

Crowdstrike shares surged 20 per cent Wednesday - as more companies sign up to its cybersecurity software in the face of increasing hack threats.

Outside of Wall Street and computer security circles, the Austin, Texas-based software firm is little-known. 

But one analyst says it could be the 'next mega-cap' - which translates to having a market value of more than $200 billion

The like of Apple, Microsoft and Exxon have held that title for decades - but current stock market darling Nvidia only hit the mark in 2020. There are only 47 that can lay claim to the title.

The leap in Crowdstrike's share price came after the company's upbeat annual forecasts signaled healthy demand for platforms - like its own - that act as one-stop shops for security.

Demand from companies for protection from hackers has increased as high profile cyber attacks have increased, such as the recent one on United Health.

This week, Facebook and Instagram went down - with Meta yet to rule out a hack. Coinbase also suffered an outage this week.  

Meta revealed the massive outage that hit Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Threads, and Messenger was caused by 'technical issues' - but has not shared exactly what the 'issues' are

Coinbase users reported their balances had been wiped last week.The crypto trading app insisted the issue was just a glitch and that its customers money was safe 

Increased fear of attacks - thanks to AI making it easier for hackers to launch attacks -  is also boosting demand for cybersecurity.

Generative AI tools make it easier to write codes for malicious purposes, said Mark Daley from Canada's Western University. 

Meanwhile, state-backed hackers are using tools from Microsoft-backed OpenAI to trick their targets, a report said last month. 

This fear is boosting business for Crowstrike. The company, and some of its rivals also offering all-in-one solutions, are benefiting from businesses who want to deal with just one provider rather than several. 

Before, software to protect computers from viruses would be separate to that guarding a company website. In turn there might be separate systems for dodging threats to a customer data held on a server. 

The results also offered some respite to investors after sector heavyweight Palo Alto Networks cut its forecast last month due to softer client spending and steep promotions.

Crowdstrike could be the next mega-cap company, one analyst says. It could follow the likes of Apple, Meta, Amazon and more recently Nvidia to being a $1 trillion company

'CrowdStrike needed to deliver at or close to perfection. The company did just that,' BTIG analyst Gray Powell said.

Based on premarket gains, CrowdStrike's market value was set to jump by more than $16 billion to about $88 billion. 

That brings it closer to Palo Alto, which is the largest U.S. cybersecurity firm with a market value of about $94 billion.

'CrowdStrike does feel like the next mega-cap company and the first to truly separate itself from the rest of the younger enterprise software companies,' said investor Ophir Gottlieb, CEO of Capital Market Laboratories.

A mega-cap company is one worth more than $200 billion - of which there are 46 at the moment.. CrowdStrike is just under half that at the moment.  

Shares of Palo Alto and other cybersecurity firms such as ZScaler, Fortinet and SentinelOne rose between 4 percent and 8.5 percent in premarket trading

A hacking group has claimed credit for one of its biggest social media outages in years on Tuesday — when millions of accounts went down worldwide on Facebook, Instagram, Facebook Messenger, Threads, and WhatsApp.

The 'hacktivist' group Anonymous claimed it was a cyber attack, but Meta has been tight-lipped on what caused the outage, simply calling it a 'technical issue.'