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Google’s Largest Acquisition Ever: $32 Billion Deal for the Company That Uncovered the DeepSeek Database Leak
On March 19, Alphabet, Google’s parent company, confirmed a $32 billion all-cash acquisition of cloud security startup Wiz. The deal is expected to close by 2026, making it the largest acquisition in Google’s history.
After Google’s initial $23 billion offer in 2024 was rejected, the company raised its bid to $32 billion, including a $320 million breakup fee payable to Wiz if the deal falls through. Earlier reports suggested the total transaction value could reach $33 billion, factoring in an additional $1 billion in retention bonuses to ensure Wiz employees stay on board post-acquisition. With Wiz’s workforce numbering around 1,700 employees, this translates to an average retention bonus of over $588,000 per person.
Wiz will continue to operate as an independent platform, supporting all cloud service providers — not just Google Cloud. The deal has been compared to Microsoft’s acquisition of LinkedIn, with Wiz maintaining a level of independence within its new corporate structure.
01 $32 Billion in 5 Years — That’s $750,000 Per Hour
Google’s acquisition of Wiz is not only its most expensive deal to date but also one of its riskiest bets.
Previously, Google’s largest acquisition was the $12.5 billion purchase of Motorola Mobility in 2011. Motorola, a legendary pioneer in mobile phones, had a long-established reputation. In contrast, Wiz was founded in 2020 and remains a young startup — so much so that many people had never even heard of the company before this acquisition.
The deal took many by surprise, with some even mistaking Wiz for the website-building platform Wix. Online discussions were filled with questions like:
“Had anyone even heard of Wiz before this announcement?”
Some Hacker News users pointed out that they were only aware of Wiz because of its blog post earlier this year about the DeepSeek database exposure incident.
