Mastercard most concerned about frontier model cybersecurity threats
Payments company launched two AI tools in Q2
Mastercard saw an increase in demand for security solutions in the second quarter as clients navigated the expanding threat landscape boosted by AI.
“The proliferation of AI, new frontier models, are amplifying new needs,” Chief Executive Michael Miebach said July 30 during the card giant’s Q2 earnings call. New frontier models represent state-of-the-art AI tech.
Mastercard bolstered its threat intelligence in Q2 by:
- Partnering with global information technology and consulting company Wipro; and
- Launching Mastercard Merchant Trust Services, a suite of AI-powered capabilities used to identify fraudulent merchants, in May.
These moves follow its acquisition of cybersecurity company Recorded Future, which led to the 2025 launch of Mastercard Threat Intelligence, a platform that monitors payment fraud, Miebach said.
“In its first three quarters, Threat Intelligence has identified more than 7 million card testing transactions across 192 countries,” Miebach said. “Stopping that activity prevented an estimated $172 million in fraud linked to malicious domains.”
AI innovation
Along with fraud-specific innovation, Mastercard has also announced several AI-driven products this year:
- Launched Agent Pay for Machines, designed to handle transactions executed by AI agents at machine speed;
- Announced the Virtual C-Suite tool that works as a Virtual CFO; and
- Is building agents for enhanced product recommendations.
Other Mastercard AI moves in the quarter:
- Built agents to help banks predict customer behavior and recommend products.
Mastercard Agent Pay for Machines enables AI agents to purchase low-value digital services such as APIs, compute, data and content, Miebach said.
“The rise of agentic commerce also brings about an entirely new class of payment use cases, machine-to-machine payments,” he said.
The bank also reported:
- Net income of $4.4 billion, up 18% year over year;
- Net revenue of $9.3 billion, up 14% YoY; and
- Operating income was $5.6 billion, up 17% YoY.
Shares of Mastercard [Nasdaq: MA] were trading at $571 at 12:30 pm today, down 1.1% from market open. Mastercard has a market capitalization of $504 billion.
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