Elia Zaitsev, CrowdStrike's Global Chief Technology Officer, is leaving after more than 13 years with the cybersecurity company to co-found Cognition with former CrowdStrike corporate-development executives Gur Talpaz and Tayler Sipperly. Cognition is targeting $170 million in commitments for a fund focused on artificial intelligence and cybersecurity, with plans to lead or co-lead seed and Series A rounds and make three or four concentrated investments annually. CrowdStrike shares fell more than 4% in intraday trading and reached $194.01, down 3.8% from Wednesday's close, though they remain up 71.1% year to date and about 14% below their 52-week high of $225.53. The company has not named a successor for Zaitsev ahead of its fiscal 2027 second-quarter earnings report on August 26. CrowdStrike also received recognition as the "strongest overall leader" in the 2026 Frost Radar Cloud Workload Protection Platforms report for the fourth consecutive year.