Could Google’s $23b bid for Israel-founded cyber unicorn boost local tech outlook?
Parent company Alphabet is said to be in ‘advanced talks’ with Wiz, in what would mark the biggest-ever Israeli tech acquisition, and generate tax windfall during Gaza war period


It was a case of being in the right place at the right time for Waze when search engine giant Google snapped up the Israeli-born navigation app more than a decade ago. Much of the same could be said about the $23 billion takeover that could be coming through to buy Israeli-founded cyber unicorn Wiz at a time when there is phenomenal growth in the need for cybersecurity solutions.
If Google’s parent company, Alphabet moves ahead with the deal, it would mark the largest in Israeli tech after US giant Intel Corp bought Mobileye, a Jerusalem-based developer of advanced vision and driver assistance systems, for $15.3 billion back in 2017. For Google, it would be the largest acquisition the search giant has ever made, almost double its record purchase of Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion in 2012.
For Israel, the discussions about a mega-deal by a US giant for Israeli-founded Wiz comes as the country is in its 10th month of war with Hamas, which began October 7 when thousands of terrorists streamed into Israel and murdered some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, while taking hostages of all ages into Gaza.
If a deal is finalized, it would further anchor Google’s commitment to develop key technology in Israel, which has become a cybersecurity powerhouse, and cement its presence in the country.
Israel’s tech standing in the global arena has been battered over the past one and a half years, starting with the political upheaval around the contentious judicial overhaul at the start of 2023 and continuing with the outbreak of the war. These events are having an impact on foreign investors who are reluctant to park their funds in Israel, especially as their appetite for global risk declines.
“The [potential] deal is a vote of confidence in Israel and the local tech sector in this challenging wartime period,” Israel Innovation Authority CEO Dror Bin told The Times of Israel. “It is a very important signal to other multinationals and foreign investors that despite the war conditions and all the challenges that we are facing, Israeli companies continue to work, continue to grow and continue to deliver value.”
For now, though, shareholders at Google and Wiz still need to agree on a deal. Even if finalized, the acquisition will still be subject to clearance by US antitrust and regulatory authorities.
Wiz was co-founded in early 2020 by Assaf Rappaport, Yinon Costica, Ami Luttwak and Roy Reznik, the same team that founded the firm Adallom, which was sold to Microsoft for $320 million in 2015. They also led Microsoft Azure’s Cloud Security Group.
The cyber unicorn is valued at a staggering $12 billion, after raising $1 billion in its latest private funding round in May. Its customers include 40 percent of the Fortune 100 companies, such as Slack, Mars, BMW, DocuSign, Plaid and Agoda.
“A tech giant like Google, which already has a very significant presence in Israel, with some 2,000 employees, will further deepen its roots in Israel with the acquisition of Wiz,” said Bin. “If we take the previous exit of the same entrepreneurs, the company [Adallom] they sold to Microsoft became the basis of a very significant cybersecurity R&D center of Microsoft in Israel.”
“I expect the same to happen with Google and assuming this business will continue to grow at the phenomenal pace that they have shown, they will need a lot of people working in Israel,” he added.
Wiz, which says that its platform can secure everything developers build and run in the cloud, was established just as the COVID-19 pandemic started gaining pace around the world, sending entire enterprises and workers online and spurring a huge migration wave to cloud-based servers. Meanwhile, Google seeks to improve its cloud computing business, Google Cloud, which is in fierce competition with Microsoft’s Azure unit and Amazon’s AWS.
Even if Wiz is technically a US company as its mother company and its intellectual property are registered in the US, for Bin it remains a shining Israeli success story.

“Behind the startup is the Israeli DNA, the entrepreneurs and the executives — all the creativity and the chutzpah of Israeli leaders so this makes it for me, an Israeli company,” said Bin. “Apart from that, a significant amount of employees do work in Israel, and the technological core of the company is in Israel. So, from many aspects, this is an Israeli company.”
As the founders of Wiz are Israeli residents and some of its investors are based in Israel, the country’s coffers are also set to benefit from the windfall should a deal be sealed. The startup employs 900 people, out of which at least 150 currently work in Israel.
Its list of investors includes venture capital funds Andreessen Horowitz, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Cyberstarts, Index Ventures, Salesforce Ventures and Sequoia Capital, as well as private investors and entrepreneurs Bernard Arnault and Starbucks founder Howard Schultz.
“The government will get a lot of taxes because of this deal, if it happens, because of the owners, because of the investors, and because of the employees in Israel, who all have to pay taxes,” said Bin. “However, as the Israeli government is faced with a very large deficit because of war spending, this deal will not solve our economic plight.”
“It will not be the magic solution that fills the gap which means that the government will have to take tough decisions to reduce the deficit and support the industry,” he remarked.
Google has had R&D activity in Israel since 2005, and employs some 2,000 workers in Haifa and Tel Aviv, with teams tackling machine learning, artificial intelligence, natural language processing, cloud networking and machine perception challenges, as well as sales and marketing.
Over the years, the tech giant has bought and invested in several Israeli companies and startups, including the $1 billion purchase of navigation app Waze, threat detection firm Siemplify, cloud storage firm Elastifile, cybersecurity company Cybereason and data migration company Alooma.
Even if the Google-Wiz deal does not come to fruition as there are a few milestones that need to be reached, the discussions and interest around Israeli-founded tech are likely to create the impetus for more deals despite all the war challenges, according to Bin.
“Multinational companies are not coming to Israel because of Zionism,” said Bin. “They are coming because they find here great business opportunities and a very good talent pool — the war did not change those two facts.”
“However, like in any other sector, when there is uncertainty, people tend to be in a wait-and-see position and maybe delay investment decisions but when they see someone who is making a bold move, it may make them also take the next step,” he said.
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