F5 Acquires CalypsoAI to Secure Generative AI Systems
▼ Summary
– F5 is acquiring CalypsoAI for $180 million to integrate its AI security capabilities into F5’s Application Delivery and Security Platform.
– The acquisition aims to address the new attack surface created by enterprise AI adoption, which traditional security solutions cannot adequately protect.
– CalypsoAI’s platform provides real-time threat protection against AI-specific attacks like prompt injection and conducts proactive red-teaming with thousands of monthly attack prompts.
– The solution offers data security guardrails to prevent sensitive data leakage and provides centralized visibility for governance and compliance across hybrid environments.
– This model-agnostic approach aligns with Gartner’s recommendation for enterprises to maintain independence from single AI providers while ensuring security and regulatory compliance.
F5 has announced its plan to acquire CalypsoAI, a company specializing in real-time threat defense, red teaming, and data security for generative AI systems. This strategic move aims to address the growing security challenges businesses face as they integrate artificial intelligence into their operations. The acquisition will see CalypsoAI’s technology integrated into F5’s Application Delivery and Security Platform, creating a comprehensive solution for securing AI inference across diverse environments.
According to François Locoh-Donou, President and CEO of F5, “AI is reshaping enterprise architecture and expanding the attack surface in ways traditional security tools can’t adequately address.” He emphasized that the addition of CalypsoAI will empower organizations to innovate more confidently while safeguarding sensitive data across applications, APIs, and AI models.
As enterprises increasingly embed AI into products and workflows, they confront a rapidly evolving threat landscape. The new AI stack, encompassing applications, agents, APIs, models, and data stores, introduces a highly dynamic attack surface. Many existing security controls struggle to keep pace with sophisticated threats, while regulatory pressures and the rise of shadow AI usage compound compliance risks. Organizations now require a model-agnostic, purpose-built security approach that offers guardrails for AI interactions and centralized visibility.
Gartner’s recent Market Guide on AI Trust, Risk and Security Management underscores the importance of maintaining independence from individual AI model providers. The guide notes that enterprises must ensure scalability, flexibility, and trust as AI markets mature, highlighting the need for solutions that are not tied to any single hosting provider or model.F5 intends to meet these demands through CalypsoAI’s adaptive security capabilities, which provide continuous protection regardless of the AI model or cloud environment. These capabilities are designed to strengthen enterprise resilience as AI adoption scales across industries.
A key feature is adversarial threat protection, which defends against emerging AI-specific attacks such as prompt injection and jailbreak attempts using real-time threat management. The system conducts proactive red-teaming tests against over 10,000 new attack prompts monthly to generate a comprehensive risk score, helping organizations stay ahead of evolving threats.
Donnchadh Casey, CEO of CalypsoAI, stated, “Businesses want to accelerate AI adoption without compromising on security or compliance. Our technology allows them to pressure-test AI systems at scale, implement adaptive guardrails, and maintain full visibility across their AI infrastructure. Together with F5, we can deliver high-performance application delivery and robust AI security that supports innovation while minimizing risk.”
The acquisition involves F5 purchasing all outstanding shares of CalypsoAI for $180 million, primarily using cash reserves. The transaction is not expected to have a material impact on F5’s revenue or operating results. Subject to standard closing conditions, the deal is anticipated to finalize in F5’s fourth fiscal quarter of 2025, which concludes on September 30, 2025.
(Source: HelpNet Security)
