According to Index Ventures Partner Shardul Shah, cybersecurity startup Wiz is positioned “at the center of three tailwinds: AI, cloud, and security spend.” These elements propelled Google’s $32 billion acquisition, now the largest venture-backed deal in history, completed after a declined 2024 offer, extensive antitrust reviews, and an additional $9 billion added to the offer.
In this episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Anthony Ha, Rebecca Bellan, and Sean O’Kane discuss with Shah the factors that justified Wiz’s price tag, alongside other headlines of the week. Topics include DOGE data concerns, Palmer Luckey’s retro gaming startup seeking funding, and Meta’s purchase of the viral AI agent social network, Moltbook. Additionally, the podcast covers the Anthropic vs. DoD case, as employees from companies like OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft sign a legal brief in support of Anthropic.
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