Google acquires Wiz for $32B to make cloud security ‘more accessible’

Alphabet, the parent company of Google, announced Tuesday it would acquire Wiz, a fast-growing cybersecurity startup, for $32 billion in an all-cash transaction. Upon closing, Wiz will become part of Google Cloud.

The acquisition is Google’s largest ever, surpassing its $12.5 billion purchase of Motorola Mobility in 2012. It also marks the second billion-dollar acquisition of a cybersecurity company; the first came in 2022, when it purchased threat intelligence firm Mandiant for $5.4 billion.

Google positioned the acquisition as improving the security of its cloud offerings. The two companies share a vision to make cybersecurity “more accessible and simpler to use,” according to Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud.

“Enabling more companies to prevent cyber attacks, including in very complex business software environments, will help organizations minimize the cost, disruption and hassle caused by cybersecurity incidents,” Kurian said in the announcement about the deal. 

The acquisition will also enable Google to offer security to customers that have multiple cloud services in their environment. This strategy could prove vital for buyers in the financial services industry, which have prioritized a multicloud approach to allow for flexibility in choosing the right vendor for the right applications and as a hedge against the risks of consolidating all cloud services into one provider.

Indeed, multicloud is core to the Wiz offering. Founded in 2020, the cloud security platform protects cloud infrastructure across multiple environments using agentless scanning — i.e., without the need to install specific software on the computers being scanned. It maps complex relationships between these environments to highlight security risks and prioritize vulnerabilities, and presents these relationships (and any threats to them) to the user as a graph of nodes and connections.

For Google, adding Wiz to the company’s offering could improve its share of the cloud services market. As of the fourth quarter of 2024, the company had 12% of the worldwide market share in terms of revenue, according to Synergy Research Group. That’s third behind Amazon, which had 30%, and Microsoft, which had 21%.

Taking a multicloud strategy could allow Google to gain customers of other cloud providers while maintaining its own, and focusing on cybersecurity could make its offerings more attractive to banks and credit unions that have strong reason and ability to choose the most secure options available, thanks to longstanding regulatory oversight, business motivations and a willingness.

For Wiz, joining forces with Google Cloud offered a major opportunity for accelerated growth and innovation. Assaf Rappaport, Wiz’s CEO, expressed excitement about the acquisition bolstering its mission to improve security and prevent breaches with Google’s deep AI expertise and resources.

“Wiz and Google Cloud are both fueled by the belief that cloud security needs to be easier, more accessible, more intelligent, and democratized, so more organizations can adopt and use cloud and AI securely,” Rappaport said in a blog post about the deal.

A deal of this magnitude is likely to attract the scrutiny of antitrust regulators, who are already pursuing cases related to Google’s search engine and advertising technology. While some anticipated a more lenient approach to Big Tech mergers under the Trump administration, others, including newly appointed FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson, have voiced commitments to maintain rigorous merger reviews.

The market reaction to the announcement was somewhat muted, with Alphabet’s shares dipping slightly on a day that was neutral for the market overall. Analysts, however, generally viewed the acquisition positively, recognizing the strategic importance of bolstering Google’s cloud security offerings.