The American giant has decided to spend big to acquire Wiz, an American-Israeli startup specializing in cybersecurity. Google will pay $32 billion to acquire Wiz, after an initial approach last summer. This acquisition, set to be finalized in 2026, marks the largest purchase ever made by Google and its parent company Alphabet, surpassing the previous record of $12.5 billion for Motorola Mobility in 2011, which has since been sold to Lenovo.
Founded in 2020 by former Microsoft executives and cybersecurity experts from the Israeli army, Wiz focuses on protecting cloud infrastructures. Although relatively unknown to the public, the young company serves half of the 100 largest U.S. companies and has 1,700 employees. Wiz generated $500 million in revenue in 2024 and forecasts over a billion for 2025.
No company spends such a large sum without a clear strategy in mind. Google aims to strengthen Google Cloud in competition with major rivals like Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure, both of which are partners of Wiz. Importantly, Google plans to keep Wiz products available on all competing platforms (Amazon, Microsoft, Oracle), which avoids accusations of monopolization by antitrust authorities. This acquisition underscores the necessity for Google to establish a strong presence in the cybersecurity field amidst rising cyber threats targeting cloud environments.
