Google (GOOGL) CEO Sundar Pichai” width=”970″ height=”647″ data-caption=’Sundar Pichai is the CEO of Google and its parent company Alphabet. <span class=”lazyload media-credit”>Mateusz Wlodarczyk/NurPhoto via Getty Images</span>’>
Alphabet’s Google today (March 18) announced that it has agreed to buy Wiz, a cybersecurity startup, for a staggering $32 billion in an all-cash deal. The acquisition isn’t just the most significant in Google’s history—it’s the largest deal struck in 2025 so far, and one that will pose the first major test to the Trump administration’s handling of M&A and antitrust activity.
The transaction, subject to regulatory approvals and expected to close next year, will see Wiz join Google Cloud division in a move to bolster the division’s cloud security options. Established in 2020, Wiz specializes in identifying cloud-specific security risks and counts the likes of Salesforce, Slack and DocuSign amongst its customers.
The emergence of A.I. has made cybersecurity all the more pressing in all industries, said Google CEO Sundar Pichai today during a webcast. The new technology “brings new risks, but also new opportunities,” noted the executive, who described Wiz as “an innovative, leading cloud security platform” and pointed out that it is already used by more than half of Fortune 100 companies.
Wiz, which is headquartered in New York and has offices across both the U.S. and Israel, was founded by CEO Assaf Rappaport and a group of fellow former Microsoft (MSFT) employees. Backed by VC powerhouses like Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia, the startup has had a remarkable rise over the past five years and was valued at $12 billion in May. Last year, it walked out on a $23 billion acquisition offer from Google as it considered going public.
How will the deal hold up against regulatory scrutiny?
Now, the deal is back with a bang—and an additional $9 billion. How it will hold up against regulatory scrutiny, however, remains to be seen. Google’s purchase will be a major test for antitrust activity under President Donald Trump, especially given Google’s current involvement in antitrust investigations regarding its search business and advertising technology.
Heading into the current administration, Trump’s support for a loosened regulatory landscape and pro-growth agenda were cited by the financial industry as factors that could cause an incoming surge of dealmaking activity. This flurry has yet to emerge, however, amid economic uncertainty and geopolitical tensions linked in part to the administration’s penchant for tariffs. Aggregate spending on M&A deal activity totaled at $144 billion this January, down more than 8 percent from last year, according to data from FactSet.
While Andrew Ferguson, the new chair of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), appears to share some of the same tough-on-tech sentiments as his predecessor Lina Khan, he’s also expected to take a less M&A-adverse approach. With “Khan gone at the FTC, the M&A engines are back underway in Big Tech after a dark period for tech M&A,” said Wedbush Security analysts in a client note.
If approved, the acquisition could help Google compete with Microsoft and Amazon (AMZN). “This would be a shot across the bow at other big tech stalwarts,” said Wedbush, as the deal “would clearly bolster the Google Cloud offering and value proposition to enterprises.”
One thing is for sure: Google’s acquisition of Wiz is set to mark a major milestone in the company’s history. The deal far surpasses the size of Google’s biggest purchase to date: the $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility in 2012.
