Palo Alto Networks Secures AI Factories

This initiative, announced at Mobile World Congress 2026, extends security from data centers to 5G networks and IoT fleets. The goal is to protect the entire "industrial backbone" of the emerging AI economy, enabling multi-terabit AI workloads without compromising performance. Key collaborations aim to address specific security needs across different sectors. The partnership with Nokia focuses on providing a validated security architecture for sovereign AI data centers, particularly supporting the rise of European 'Gigafactories'. This allows customers to scale high-performance AI while meeting stringent data sovereignty requirements. For the telecommunications and IoT sectors, Palo Alto Networks is teaming up with U Mobile, Aeris, and Celerway. The collaboration includes a Security-as-a-Service (SECaaS) agreement with U Mobile, integration of Aeris' IoT visibility with Prisma SASE 5G, and edge protections with Celerway's VM-Series. The move addresses the expanding attack surface created by AI factories. As AI integrates more deeply with operational technology (OT) and IoT infrastructure, it introduces new vulnerabilities, including risks of data exfiltration, model poisoning, and intellectual property theft. This "secure by design" approach embeds security directly into the AI infrastructure rather than applying it as a perimeter defense. By integrating security at the data processing unit (DPU) layer and across networks, the initiative aims to provide Zero Trust security for every AI workload. The focus on sovereign AI is a direct response to nations and large enterprises seeking to control their own data and AI development. These projects require high-performance computing and data centers that are secure and comply with local data governance laws, a core challenge this ecosystem aims to solve.