Equities Weekly | Global Technology – Cybersecurity: A Secular AI Winner
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Chief Investment Office23 Oct 2024
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Global technology: Cybersecurity – a secular AI winner. While cybersecurity companies have not enjoyed the stellar YTD gains of its semiconductor counterparts, the long-term investment thesis for this theme remains wholly intact. Cybersecurity is one of the most direct beneficiaries of the AI trend; the rapid adoption of AI, while beneficial to many, has also brought on a deluge of new risks to a wide range of parties. With the ongoing migration of data and systems to cloud, cyber-attacks have become a key risk that CTOs and CISOs around the world are focusing on.

Growing sophistication of cyberattacks. With the help of generative AI and machine learning tools, cyber criminals are now able to launch more sophisticated attacks with greater frequency and speed. Brute force encryption hacking, which used to take much longer, can now be expedited using AI. “Deepfake”, which involves the use of AI to manipulate audio, video or images in a way that mimics real people, has also become a tool to spread misinformation as well as to commit fraud and identity theft. According to Sumsub, an identity verification company, the number of deepfake incidents increased by 700% y/y in 2023.

AI-enabled cyber-attacks to spur greater security spending. While AI has exacerbated cybercrimes on one hand, it has also offered enhanced cybersecurity solutions. Enterprises will increasingly look for AI-powered cybersecurity solutions, from automated threat screening and discovery to AI-optimised security solutions that simplify, streamline, and consolidate security operations management. This is expected to propel the collective revenue of major cybersecurity companies to USD56bn in 2024. The total addressable market for cybersecurity is expected to reach USD158bn by 2028.


Equity fund flows:
The week ended 16 Oct saw a reversal in China-related equity fund flows. After a two-week streak of inflows amounting to USD53bn, domestically domiciled China Equity Funds surrendered over USD6.3bn last week. Conversely, the US saw strong fund inflows; more than USD23bn was committed to US Equity Funds during the week. Europe Equity Funds registered another weekly outflow despite the ECB delivering its third 25 bps rate cut of the year. Japan Equity Funds experienced its first consecutive weekly outflow since August as the country prepares for a general election on 27 Oct.

Figure 1: Cybersecurity revenue on the rise


Source: Bloomberg, DBS


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