BlackBerry has revealed a deal to buy AI company Cylance for $1.4 billion.

The software giant believes Cylance will help it in an area where many organisations lag – cyber security. Cylance works on applying AI, algorithmic science and machine learning to cyber security software.

It was founded in 2012 and has more than 3,500 enterprise customers. A fifth of those are of the Fortune 500.

“Cylance’s leadership in artificial intelligence and cybersecurity will immediately complement our entire portfolio, UEM and QNX in particular. We are very excited to onboard their team and leverage our newly combined expertise,” said John Chen, Executive Chairman and CEO of BlackBerry.

“We believe adding Cylance’s capabilities to our trusted advantages in privacy, secure mobility, and embedded systems will make BlackBerry Spark indispensable to realizing the Enterprise of Things.”

The all-cash deal is expected to be closed before the end of BlackBerry’s current fiscal year, which is in February 2019, but is still pending regulatory approval.

After the deal is complete, Cylance will continue to operate as a separate business unit within BlackBerry Limited.

“Our highly skilled cybersecurity workforce and market leadership in next-generation endpoint solutions will be a perfect fit within BlackBerry where our customers, teams and technologies will gain immediate benefits from BlackBerry’s global reach,” said Stuart McClure, Co-Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Cylance.

“We are eager to leverage BlackBerry’s mobility and security strengths to adapt our advanced AI technology to deliver a single platform.”