Google completes historic $32 billion Wiz deal
Israel’s largest tech exit is expected to generate billions in taxes and investor returns.
Google announced on Wednesday the completion of its acquisition of the Israeli cybersecurity company Wiz, marking the largest deal in the history of both the Israeli tech sector and the Internet giant. Despite the ongoing conflict between Israel, the United States, and Iran, Google chose not to delay the announcement, releasing news of the acquisition just before Wall Street opened.
The deal, signed in March 2025, represents a cash transaction valued at approximately $32 billion, the highest exit in Israeli high-tech history. The acquisition followed an extensive series of regulatory approvals across multiple jurisdictions. Google’s first offer in July 2024, valued at $23 billion, was rejected by Wiz, which opted to wait for a better market environment. Renewed negotiations in early 2025 led to the final $32 billion cash deal, which included a $3.2 billion “termination fee” clause in case of regulatory blockage.
The all-cash transaction is expected to inject the largest-ever sum from a tech deal into the Israeli state coffers. Despite a weakening dollar against the shekel over the past year, authorities anticipate roughly NIS 10 billion (approximately $3.2B) in tax revenue.
The bulk of this revenue will come from Wiz’s four founders, Assaf Rappaport (CEO), Ami Luttwak (CTO), Yinon Costica (VP Product), and Roy Reznik (VP R&D), who collectively hold about 40% of the company’s shares. Additional contributions will come from Israeli investors in Cyberstarts, the venture capital fund founded by Gili Raanan that was Wiz’s first investor. Cyberstarts retains a stake worth an estimated $1.5 billion, after selling part of its holding to Blackstone in 2021.
Hundreds of Israeli Wiz employees are also expected to cash out their stock options, generating around $2.5 billion in taxable income.
Wiz was founded by the four founders, who previously collaborated at Adallom, a cybersecurity company sold to Microsoft for approximately $340 million. Following the acquisition of Adallom, the team led Microsoft’s cyber operations in Israel, with Rappaport overseeing local operations. Under their leadership, the Israeli office became one of the company’s most highly regarded R&D centers.
After their tenure at Microsoft, the founders launched Wiz, initially called Beyond, partnering again with Gili Raanan to establish the company’s strategic and financial foundation.
Prior to its acquisition, Wiz raised approximately $1.9 billion across multiple funding rounds: Seed round (Feb 2020): $21 million at a post-money valuation of $67 million; Series A (Dec 2020): $100 million at a valuation of $500 million; Series B (Mar-May 2021): $250 million at a $1.7 billion valuation; Series C (Oct 2021): $250 million at a $6 billion valuation; Series D (Feb 2023): $300 million at a $10 billion valuation; Series E (May 2024): $1 billion at a $12 billion valuation.
The foreign shareholders in Wiz who are expected to benefit from the deal include Index Ventures, which holds about 12% of the company and is expected to receive approximately $3.8 billion; Sequoia Capital, with an estimated 10% stake worth around $3.2 billion; and Insight Partners, expected to receive about $2.9 billion.
In addition to these main investors, the Wiz employees, comprising roughly 1,800 people worldwide, including about 1,000 in Israel, holds stock options and shares valued at approximately $3 billion. Beyond these holdings, Google has allocated roughly $1.5 billion in retention bonuses, to be paid in a combination of cash and Google shares, for employees who remain with the company following the acquisition.
Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, said: "Keeping people safe online has always been part of Google's mission. This job is increasingly important today, as more companies and governments move their work to the cloud and broadly use generative AI. By bringing Wiz and Google Cloud together, we're making it easier for organizations to innovate with confidence."
Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud: "We want to make security a catalyst for innovation, not a barrier. With this acquisition, we will deliver a unified security platform that simplifies the complex task of protecting multicloud environments in the AI era, making a strong security posture accessible to more companies and governments."
Assaf Rappaport, Co-Founder and CEO of Wiz: "Joining Google Cloud allows us to scale our mission of protecting customers wherever they operate – at machine speed. We remain committed to our open approach, ensuring Wiz continues to support all major cloud and code environments. With Google's AI leadership and resources, coupled with Wiz's deep context and knowledge of cloud and code environments, we are in a stronger position to help our partners and customers prevent breaches before they happen."
