It is by far the most important acquisition ever made by Google and its parent company Alphabet. It will allow Google to accelerate in computer science remotely, “cloud computing”. Google will buy, for $ 32 billion, the Israeli start-up Wiz, specializing in cybersecurity. This takeover will be entirely in cash, according to a press release published this Tuesday, March 17, and is expected to be finalized in 2026.
WIZ, based in New York but which has kept its headquarters in Tel Aviv, offers a data analysis service to detect security risks. WIZ stood out by designing this computer security model focused on the use of remote computer, the cloud. Today it equips half of the 100 largest American companies, according to the Cybersecurity Unicorn website. Concretely, precise numberthe program developed by Wiz Cartography all Cloud infrastructure and identifies alerts or vulnerabilities that could lead to breaches.
Silicon Valley investors support
“Our mission is to help all companies to secure everything they realize and run in the cloud, whatever this cloud,” said Wiz Director Assaf Rappaport during a call conference. “Cloud migration has transformed how software is designed,” added the co-founder of Wiz. The start-up, which has approached “fastest growth software company of all time”, reached $ 500 million in recurrent turnover (ARR) in 2024 and plans to exceed billion in 2025. It benefits from the support of many Silicon Valley investors.
Wiz, which has 1,500 employees, was launched in 2020 by four Israelis members of the prestigious unit 8200, the elite unit of the IT intelligence of the Israeli army, which Assaf Rappaport, recall Les Echos. Previously, the co-founders had already created a first company, Adallom, dedicated to computer security of remote software (SaaS), programs used by companies through the cloud. As Numerama reminds us, Wiz was born at the right time: at the very beginning of the Cavid-19 pandemic, a period marked by a massive adoption of telework and an accelerated migration to the cloud. With the generalization of telework, the risks linked to network security have multiplied, which considerably increased the demand for solutions capable of protecting tasks from a distance.
An offer refused in 2024
The growing use of the cloud increases the risks of computer attacks, companies using infrastructure located on different sites. The rise of artificial intelligence requires processing and storage capacities provided by data centers (data centers), which makes the cloud even more essential.
The Wiz start-up had already been approached by Google in 2024, but the board of directors had refused the offer, estimated by several American media at 23 billion dollars. In an internal message addressed to the company’s employees, Assaf Rappaport had indicated that the group preferred to prepare for an IPO. After this setback, Google had returned to the charge, significantly going up its offer. The Californian giant had not hesitated to put on the table the double of the valuation that Wiz was in a recent sale of shares, at the end of 2024.
A growth market
This acquisition allows Google to strengthen in computer security, considered a growth market. Small player of the Cloud ten years ago, Google is gradually raised in power, to the point of reaching $ 43 billion in turnover in this activity last year (+30 % over a year). “Artificial intelligence presents new risks, but also new opportunities,” said Google boss Sundar Pichai at a conference call. The integration of WIZ to Google is able to “accelerate the capacity of companies to strengthen their security, while lowering their costs, and promoting the adoption of computer science remotely,” he added.
Thomas Kurian, cloud pattern at Google, has mentioned the new generative AI models, on which assistants are built like Chatgpt or Gemini, housed in the cloud and likely to be the subject of computer attacks. He also mentioned the potential danger that certain models could represent in the event of diversion and use for computer piracy purposes.
Google had already grabbed, in 2022, another cybersecurity actor, the American mandiant, for $ 5.4 billion. So far, the largest operation of the Mountain View group (California) dates back to 2012, with the resumption of Motorola Mobility, former Motorola equipment division, for $ 12.5 billion.