Google in talks to acquire cybersecurity startup Wiz

According to the Wall Street Journal, Google and its parent organization, Alphabet, are in talks to acquire the cybersecurity startup Wiz for $23 billion. If the deal avoids legal antitrust challenges, it would be Google’s largest acquisition.

In May 2024, Wiz raised $1 billion for a $12 billion valuation. The funding round was led by top-tier venture capital firms Andreessen Horowitz, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Thrive Capital.

Wiz is one of the only startups outside of the artificial intelligence industry to raise money at a higher valuation this year, according to the Wall Street Journal.

It would mark an exit for the founders and venture capitalist backers at a time when initial public offerings (IPOs) are challenging.

About Wiz cybersecurity

Wiz, founded in 2020 by former Microsoft executives in Israel, has quickly gained attention in the cybersecurity landscape for its unique approach to protecting cloud infrastructure. The platform offers comprehensive visibility and advanced threat detection capabilities, empowering organizations to safeguard their critical assets in cloud environments effectively.

Wiz solutions support multiple cloud service providers, such as Amazon AWS, Google Cloud Platform, and Microsoft Azure. Customers use Wiz solutions for agentless scanning, risk assessments, graph visualizations, identifying threats, cloud detection and response, among others.

Wiz has headquarters locations in New York City and Israel. It has also continued its operations as usual despite an ongoing regional war in Israel and Gaza.

Disclaimer: The author of this article is a current employee of Google. This article does not represent the views or opinions of his employer and is not meant to be an official statement for Google, Google Cloud, or the Alphabet holding company.