As the issue of AI safety and rogue agents continues to dominate the headlines, it’s not surprising that cybersecurity stocks are experiencing a rise, nor that investors are channeling significant funds into startups that are working on the next wave of security solutions for an AI-inclined world. We’re witnessing companies like Instinct and Simile attract nine-figure investments and valuations that would have seemed unrealistic a few years back.

At the forefront of this evolving landscape is Shardul Shah, a partner at Index Ventures who has devoted nearly two decades to investing in cybersecurity and enterprise software — which includes six consecutive funding rounds in the cloud security startup Wiz, acquired by Google for $32 billion earlier this year, marking one of its largest acquisitions ever.

In this episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Shah speaks with Rebecca Bellan about why he believes that traditional, human-mediated security is no longer sufficient, and why Index continues to invest in AI-native security startups at stages that historically required much more substantiation.

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