Palo Alto Networks' Bid to Secure the Agentic Enterprise

Autonomous AI agents now operate as highly privileged users within enterprise environments. As these systems make decisions and interact across multiple platforms with minimal human oversight, it creates a myriad of security challenges for organisations deploying them at scale.

Enter Palo Alto Networks, which has announced plans to acquire Portkey, an AI gateway specialist, that could address control and governance gaps that have emerged as enterprises expand their use of autonomous agents in daily operations.

The acquisition comes as organisations seek infrastructure to manage agent behaviour without slowing development velocity.

Portkey's technology processes trillions of tokens each month, providing a centralised layer through which all AI interactions can be monitored and governed.

Centralised control for agent deployment

Portkey's platform functions as a unified control plane for AI systems. The gateway routes and monitors every AI interaction, designed to provide visibility across all agentic traffic within an organisation.

"AI agents have become privileged insiders, reasoning and executing on behalf of users and companies," writes Nikesh Arora, Chairman and CEO at Palo Alto Networks, on his LinkedIn.

"With that power comes a new category of risk. You cannot build an agentic enterprise without a centralised control plane to secure it."

Nikesh describes Portkey as a pioneer of AI gateway technology: "Their platform is battle-tested at scale, processing trillions of tokens per month.

"By integrating Portkey into our Prisma AIRS following closing, we are delivering the industry’s first unified enforcement layer to manage and secure every AI app and agent across the enterprise. "

Infrastructure for production scale operations

The integration promises operational reliability alongside governance capabilities.

Portkey includes features such as semantic routing and automated failover, which could help organisations maintain uptime of up to 99.99%, according to the company. These capabilities could prove necessary for mission-critical AI workloads that require continuous availability.

The platform provides advanced telemetry and audit logging, giving teams the ability to track every AI transaction in real time.

"As autonomous agents join the enterprise workforce, they also become a new, unmanaged attack surface," says Lee Klarich, Chief Product & Technology Officer of Palo Alto Networks. "By integrating Portkey into Prisma AIRS, organisations will be able to confidently deploy and govern AI agents.

"With Portkey, we are providing enterprises with visibility into all their agentic traffic and enabling them to control and protect against agentic threats."

Managing costs and model ecosystems

Global AI governance becomes possible through centralised management of models, agents and supporting tools.

The approach allows organisations to move from fragmented experimentation to structured production environments.

Portkey includes caching and quota systems designed to prevent unexpected spikes in usage. These controls help organisations manage costs while maintaining access to a wide ecosystem of AI models.

The platform supports multiple model providers, allowing developers to switch between different AI services without restructuring their applications.

"Scaling AI in production requires a delicate balance between total flexibility for developers and absolute control for security teams," says Rohit Agarwal, CEO and Co-Founder of Portkey.

"By joining Palo Alto Networks, we will establish the AI Gateway as the foundational layer of the secure AI enterprise. Together, we will provide the infrastructure that allows every organisation to deploy autonomous agents with the confidence that their data and operations are fully protected."

Integration timeline and market positioning

The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026.

Palo Alto Networks has committed to continuing support for Portkey's existing customers while integrating the platform's capabilities into Prisma AIRS.

Financial details were not disclosed by the companies. However, according to an Economic Times report, Portkey may be valued between US$120m and US$140m – double the valuation the company had in February 2026.

The acquisition reflects growing demand for infrastructure that can manage autonomous agents in production environments.

As enterprises expand their deployment of AI systems, the need for centralised control planes could become standard architecture.