AI Stocks — The Security Layer Leads, the Builders Look for a Floor

Last week this letter asked whether Friday's crack in the applications was a shakeout or the start of a breakdown — and said the flow board would answer. It answered — shakeout.

The companies that run AI rose 6.1% and the applications 3.0%, led by the security and governance layer — Zscaler +23%, Okta +14%, CrowdStrike +13% — while the builders fell another 6.0%, the data-centre contractors 15%. The ladder split by twelve points in a week. On Friday memory bounced first, the one part of the build-out that rose on the week. The …