How CISOs became the gatekeepers of $309B AI infrastructure spending

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Enterprise AI infrastructure spending is expected to reach $309 billion by 2027. The winners won’t be determined by who has the best models; it’ll come down to who controls the infrastructure layer that makes AI operational at scale.

Security vendors are making the most aggressive moves. Palo Alto Networks, CrowdStrike and Cisco each report AI-driven security revenue growing 70 to 80% year-over-year while traditional infrastructure sales decline. The pattern is clear: Security is becoming the control plane for enterprise AI.

“The complexity of AI workloads is straining existing infrastructure to its breaking point,” Ali Ghodsi, CEO of Databricks, notes in a blog post. “Enterprises need fundamentally new approaches to manage AI at scale.”

The evidence is mounting. According to IDC data, 73% of enterprises cite infrastructure inadequacy as their primary barrier to AI adoption. Meanwhile, adversaries are weaponizing AI faster than enterprises can deploy defenses. The infrastructure wars have begun.