Alphabet, the parent company of Google, is reportedly in advanced talks to acquire Wiz.ai, an innovative Israeli cloud cybersecurity firm, for a staggering $23 billion. If completed, this deal would not only become the largest acquisition of an Israeli company in the country’s history but also set a new record for Alphabet, marking the biggest acquisition ever undertaken by the tech behemoth behind the world’s leading search engine.
Dror Bin, CEO of the Israel Innovation Authority, explains that Google currently lacks a major player in cybersecurity, an area where it is competing fiercely with rivals such as Amazon and Microsoft, both of which have well-established cyber strategies for their cloud services. The acquisition of Wiz.ai could address this gap, providing Google with advanced cloud security capabilities.
Wiz.ai, which has been operational for only four years, has already reached impressive revenue figures and demonstrated exceptional growth, making it a significant asset in the cybersecurity domain with a highly competitive technical solution and business model.
For a multinational company to acquire an Israeli company with such a large amount of money, it means they believe in the strength of the Israeli tech hub and its ability to continue delivering despite the challenges. It suggests they’re thinking about the mid and long-term potential.
When people look at Israel from abroad, they believe that in the short term — which could be weeks or months — the war will be over. And for the midterm and long term, the fundamentals of the Israeli tech hub are strong: the human talent here, the very bold entrepreneurs that we have locally, the sophisticated investors.
Israel 21C contributed to this article.