Google is reportedly planning its biggest startup acquisition ever

Google is considering spending $23 billion to buy Wiz, a cloud cybersecurity startup with partners that include Amazon and Oracle, reports The Wall Street Journal. At close to twice what it spent for Motorola Mobility in 2012, it would be the most Google has ever paid for another company.

The New York City-based Wiz offers “siloed security tools and scanners” for the enterprise space, according to the company. Wiz writes that it secures corporate cloud infrastructure “by creating a normalizing layer between cloud environments,” letting businesses “rapidly identify and remove critical risks.” Buying such a company feels particularly targeted at an increasingly vulnerable-looking Microsoft that’s recently weathered multiple high-profile security breaches.

Google Cloud boss Thomas Kurian has been the driving force behind the acquisition attempt, according to The New York Times. If successful, it could help solidify Google’s reputation as a secure cloud platform. That seemed to be the idea behind its half-billion dollar purchase of another cloud security startup in 2022 and the $5.4 billion acquisition of Mandiant, the company that discovered the SolarWinds hack later that year.

The deal “looks likely,” according to the Times, but it could fall through and risks triggering reviews from US regulators. The Biden administration has presided over significant antitrust action, including the Department of Justice’s lawsuit over Google’s Search deal with Apple and the Federal Trade Commission’s failed effort to block Microsoft from buying Activision.