The European Commission’s approval of Google ‘s acquisition of Wiz above all signals a shift in the balance of power in the cloud arms race. For $32 billion, Google Cloud is buying what it has failed to fully organically develop over the years: the trust of half of the Fortune 100 companies and the technological ‘seatbelt’ that is becoming the standard in modern infrastructure.
From Brussels’ perspective, the deal proved surprisingly easy to swallow. The decision by Teresa Ribera, executive vice-president of the EC, is based on a pragmatic assessment of the market, where Google is still chasing Amazon (AWS) and Microsoft (Azure). Brussels felt that absorbing Wiz would not cut off the competition’s oxygen. The key argument was interoperability; multicloud customers would not be trapped in Google’s ecosystem, and sensitive commercial data of competitors integrating with Wiz would remain protected. It is a rare case where antitrust authorities see consolidation as an opportunity to make the number three player more competitive against the dominant leaders.
For the business world, this deal is a lesson in patience and the brutal valuation of security. Back in 2024, Assaf Rappaport, CEO of Wiz, rejected a $23 billion offer, baiting investors with visions of an IPO. A year and a half later, Google came back to the table with a premium of $9 billion. The jump in valuation from 12 billion (during the May 2024 funding round) to 32 billion reflects a new market reality: in the age of AI and distributed infrastructure, security is no longer an add-on, but a foundation for which corporations are willing to pay any price.
The integration of Wiz with Google Cloud is a purely offensive move. Google is not buying revenue – those at $350 million are a drop in the ocean of need – but it is buying relationships with executives from some of the world’s largest companies. If Google manages to keep its Wiz solutions agnostic, it could become the main guarantor of security in multi-cloud architectures, monetising the protection of data stored with its biggest rivals. It’s a risky but logical gamble for the highest stakes in the digital economy.
