Google’s $32 billion deal to acquire cybersecurity start-up Wiz is breaking records:

• The largest exit in Israel’s high-tech history
• Google’s biggest acquisition ever
• The largest cybersecurity deal to date

Co-founded by two Technion alumni, Wiz’s success is a testament to the unparalleled impact Technion graduates have on Israel’s economy and innovation culture. Technion alumni have started 729 companies and contributed over $21 billion to Israel’s GDP, cementing Israel’s status as the Startup Nation.

The proposed takeover announced Tuesday is part of Google’s aggressive expansion into cloud computing during an artificial intelligence boom. The frenzy is driving demand for data centers that provide the computing power for AI technology and intensifying the competition in that space among Google and two other tech powerhouses, Microsoft and Amazon.

If the all-cash transaction is approved by regulators, Wiz will join Google Cloud — an increasingly important part of its business separate from the search and advertising operations that account for most of the $350 billion annual revenue at Google’s parent company, Alphabet.

With the advent of AI, however, the cloud division has become a rising star at Google. Annual revenue in the division was $26.3 billion in 2022, and soared 64% to $43.2 billion last year.

Wiz, a five-year-old startup founded by four longtime friends who met in the Israeli army when they were still teenagers, is on track for an estimated $1 billion in revenue this year. After getting its start in Israel in 2020, Wiz now oversees an operation that makes security tools protecting the information stored in data centers from its current headquarters in New York.

Keep reading at apnews.com.

Wiz Co-founders CEO Assaf Rappaport and VP of Product Yinon Costica are Technion alumni.