CalypsoAI’s platform to provide real-time threat defense against attacks and data security guardrails to help enterprises securely deploy artificial intelligence and generative AI.
F5 today announced its intention to acquire for $180 million Dublin, Ireland-based CalypsoAI, a private company that delivers adaptive AI security capabilities that F5 says it will integrate into its F5 Application Delivery and Security Platform (ADSP).
The CalypsoAI acquisition will let F5 offer technology to enterprise customers that will secure AI models, agents, and inference across different environments, F5 says. F5’s ADSP is a unified platform that converges application delivery and security services to secure and optimize applications and APIs across on-premises, private cloud, public cloud, and edge environments, according to the company.
“AI is redefining enterprise architecture—and the attack surface companies must defend,” said François Locoh-Donou, President and CEO of F5, in a statement. “Traditional firewalls and point solutions can’t keep up. The addition of CalypsoAI will give enterprises the confidence to innovate faster and better protect critical data as they rely on F5 to deliver and secure apps, APIs, and AI models across their environment.”
CalypsoAI’s platform creates what the company calls an Inference Perimeter that protects across models, vendors, and environments. The offers several products including Inference Red Team, Inference Defend, and Inference Observe, which deliver adversarial testing, threat detection and prevention, and enterprise oversight, respectively, among other capabilities. CalypsoAI says its platform proactively secures AI at inference, with agentic red-teaming, real-time defense, and automated security enforcement.
“Enterprise wants to move fast with AI while reducing the risk of data leaks, unsafe outputs, or compliance failures,” said Donnchadh Casey, CEO of CalypsoAI, in a statement. “Our customers rely on us to pressure test AI systems at scale, set, inference layer guardrails that adapt as models change, and to gain visibility and auditability across their AI estate. F5 and CalypsoAI are more than the sum of their parts: high-performance application delivery and AI security that enable businesses to deliver innovation without increasing risk.”
In a blog post featuring a Q&A discussion between F5’s Chief Innovation Officer Kunal Anand and CalypsoAI’s CTO James White, Anand shared how the acquisition will support F5’s vision of providing a single, adaptive platform to secure code, APIs, and AI constructs. The integration of Calypso’s AI-native security into F5’s ADSP will enable enterprises to secure AI models, agents, and data flows, Anand said.
“This isn’t about bolding on a new feature. It’s about embedding AI protection into the application fabric itself. Enterprises can now build with AI, not just react to its risks,” Anand said.
In the same discussion, White detailed the customer challenges that CalypsoAI addresses, which include AI vulnerabilities, compliance gaps, shadow AI, and fragmented security tools. “Our approach is both proactive and continuous. This layered security approach gives enterprises the tools to protect against risks from pilot to production, streamline compliance, and accelerate their AI innovation—securely,” White said.
According to the company, F5 will acquire all issued and outstanding shares of CalypsoAI, a private company with major operations for $180 million in purchase consideration, financed primarily with cash. The transaction is expected to be immaterial to F5’s revenue and operating results. The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close in F5’s fourth quarter fiscal year 2025, ending September 30, 2025.
