ServiceNow's $7.75 billion Armis acquisition - betting that security and trust, not just capability, will determine who wins enterprise AI

Some of us may be in the throes of Christmas celebrations, but the AI enterprise market slows for no-one it seems. ServiceNow today announced its intention to acquire Armis, a leader in cyber exposure management and cyber-physical security, for $7.75 billion in cash. The deal, expected to close in the second half of 2026, brings together ServiceNow's workflow automation platform with Armis' real-time visibility and risk prioritization across IT, operational technology (OT), medical devices, and industrial environments. Together, the companies aim to create what they're calling "a unified, end-to-end security exposure and operations stack that can see, decide, and act across the entire technology footprint."

At $7.75 billion, this is ServiceNow's largest deal by a considerable margin. And a deal of this size signals how the vendor is seeing the enterprise AI market playing out: capability without trust is useless. And trust requires comprehensive security ...