Google buys Wiz for $32 billion, the largest venture-backed acquisition ever

Google has completed its acquisition of cybersecurity startup Wiz for $32 billion, the largest deal in venture market history. Google tried to buy Wiz a year ago and was turned down. Now the deal is closed: after antitrust reviews on both sides of the Atlantic, Google has got an asset that investors describe as the best positioned for the next wave of technology growth.

The startup was founded in 2020 by alumni of the Microsoft Azure Security team. In four years, Wiz grew into one of the most valuable private technology companies in the world. Its product, a platform for protecting cloud infrastructure, found demand just as companies were moving data to the cloud en masse while also deploying AI systems with access to critical resources.

Index Ventures partner Shardul Shah, an early Wiz investor, explained the value of the deal succinctly: the startup sits at the intersection of three powerful waves, rising AI spending, cloud migration and tightening cybersecurity requirements. Each of these trends creates a huge market on its own. Together they form a rare point where enterprise demand and venture capital concentrate.

The $32 billion price tops the previous venture market record, Microsoft's acquisition of LinkedIn in 2016 for $26 billion. Wiz's investors, including Sequoia, Index Ventures, Insight Partners and other funds, will receive record returns.

The 2024 refusal adds extra weight to the deal: Google offered about $23 billion then, and the founders said no. They ended up with substantially more, and the industry will be discussing this precedent in negotiating leverage for a long time.

For Google, the deal addresses several strategic problems at once. Google Cloud trails AWS and Azure in market share, and one reason is its less developed security ecosystem. Wiz fills that gap. In addition, as AI infrastructure expands, protecting cloud environments is becoming a priority for large enterprise customers. Buying Wiz is both a product upgrade and a marketing argument for enterprise sales.

Antitrust regulators in the US and EU approved the deal, although the process took several months. At a time of heavy pressure on big tech companies, that is telling in itself: Google won approval for one of the largest acquisitions in the industry's history.

The deal sets a new benchmark for the venture market. Cybersecurity confirms its status as one of the hottest sectors, especially when paired with cloud and AI. And tech giants show they are willing to pay premium prices for companies that close strategic gaps rather than simply add functionality. For founders and investors, the signal is clear: a well-positioned startup in the right sector can be worth far more than it seemed a year ago.