Google has agreed to buy Wiz, a fast-growing cybersecurity start-up, for $32 billion in the company’s biggest push to strengthen its cloud-computing business and expand beyond the search engine and consumer internet services that made it a household name.
The all-cash deal, announced on Tuesday, would be Google’s largest, easily surpassing its $12.5 billion purchase of Motorola Mobility in 2012.
With the deal, Google would get a five-year-old company that most consumers are unfamiliar with but that a growing number of businesses rely on to protect their cloud applications. The Silicon Valley giant worked for months last year to forge a deal for Wiz, which was most recently valued at $12 billion. In July, Wiz rejected Google’s $23 billion takeover offer, saying it wanted to pursue an initial public offering, but an I.P.O. never came.
The splashy purchase would inject fresh momentum into Google Cloud, the division that sells computing services to other businesses. It would also be the tech giant’s most aggressive effort to keep up with Microsoft, its longtime rival, in cybersecurity.
“Today, businesses and governments that run in the cloud are looking for even stronger security solutions, and greater choice in cloud computing providers,” Sundar Pichai, Google’s chief executive, said in a statement. “Together, Google Cloud and Wiz will turbocharge improved cloud security and the ability to use multiple clouds.”
But first, Alphabet, Google’s parent company, would have to clear regulatory hurdles.
The deal will test the company’s ability to conduct major acquisitions during protracted antitrust battles with the U.S. government. The Justice Department has sued Google in two separate monopoly cases, one targeting its ubiquitous search engine and another seeking to break up its digital advertising-technology business. A federal judge ruled that the company had illegally maintained a monopoly in online search and will decide on remedies to restore competition by August.
Under President Trump, regulators have continued to take a stand against corporate consolidation. In January, the Justice Department sued to block Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s acquisition of a rival, Juniper Networks, arguing that the deal would eliminate competition and raise prices in the computer networking industry.
Alphabet has spent years trying to diversify from the search engine, YouTube video service and other online advertising businesses that bring in three-quarters of its revenue. Alphabet has created venture companies like the self-driving car company Waymo and Verily, which is focused on health care, but they have yet to fully pay off.
The company has also pumped resources into Google Cloud. Like its competitors Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure, the unit offers a variety of services to help companies store and analyze data, as well as run applications.
The Wiz acquisition aligns with a plan to make Google Cloud a bigger player in cybersecurity. Under Thomas Kurian, the unit’s chief executive, Google Cloud bought two cybersecurity firms in 2022, Mandiant for $5.4 billion and Siemplify for a reported $500 million. The strategy could help Google catch up to Microsoft, which has said it generates more than $20 billion in annual revenue from security, making it the world’s largest provider of cybersecurity software.
If completed, the deal may also help reinvigorate Google Cloud’s revenue expansion. As the business has grown, its pace has usually slowed, though revenue in the fourth quarter rose a stout 30 percent from a year earlier, to $12 billion.
Wiz has grown at a torrid pace. Last year, it said it had $350 million in recurring revenue, up from $100 million two years earlier. The company, which is based in New York, has said it plans to reach $1 billion in recurring revenue in 2025.
“This acquisition will bolster our mission to improve security and prevent breaches by providing additional resources and deep A.I. expertise,” Assaf Rappaport, the chief executive of Wiz, said in a statement.
Wiz’s investors include Andreessen Horowitz, Thrive Capital, Greenoaks and Advent International.
Lauren Hirsch contributed reporting from New York.
