Google has completed its $32 billion acquisition of cloud security company Wiz, bringing the New York-based firm into Google Cloud amid intensifying competition in cloud and AI security.
The deal comes as businesses and governments move more critical systems to the cloud while adopting AI tools at a faster pace. That shift is putting more pressure on security teams already dealing with increasingly complex multicloud environments.
Assaf Rappaport, Co-Founder & CEO, 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.”
At the same time, attackers are also using AI to make cyber threats faster and more sophisticated.
Wiz will stay cross-cloud
Wiz will keep its own brand and continue supporting customers across major cloud platforms, including Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Oracle Cloud, and Google Cloud.
Wiz built its business on a cloud-agnostic model. Many large organisations use several cloud providers at once and prefer security tools that work across all of them rather than tools tied to just one vendor.
Why did Google want Wiz?
Google said the acquisition is aimed at strengthening its cloud security offering and helping organisations manage risk across code, cloud infrastructure, and runtime environments.
Wiz is known for giving security and engineering teams a simpler way to identify risks across cloud systems and respond to threats more quickly. That makes it a strategic fit for Google Cloud at a time when customers are looking for more unified security platforms.
Sundar Pichai, CEO, Google, “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 organisations to innovate with confidence.”
Focus on threats linked to AI
The two companies said the combined offering will focus on helping customers detect, prevent, and respond to threats faster, including risks linked to AI systems.
That includes spotting new threats created with AI, protecting AI models from attacks, and using AI tools to help security teams investigate threats more efficiently.
Google said the combined capabilities should help companies and public sector organisations apply more consistent security tools and policies across different environments while reducing operational complexity. It also sees an opportunity to make security management easier for smaller organisations that often lack large in-house cybersecurity teams.
Thomas Kurian, CEO, Google Cloud, said, “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.”
