The $57 Billion Year: How Wiz and CyberArk Reshaped Global Cybersecurity
Thirteen months. Two largest cyber exits in history. Both Israeli-founded. Google/Wiz at $32B. Palo Alto/CyberArk at $25B. Combined: $57B. Both retained Israeli engineering centers. The talent now recycling into the next category leaders.
In a single thirteen-month stretch, two of the largest cybersecurity exits in history both went to Israeli-founded companies. Google closed its $32 billion all-cash acquisition of Wiz on March 11, 2026 — the largest deal in Google's history and the largest exit in Israeli history. Palo Alto Networks closed its $25 billion acquisition of CyberArk on February 11, 2026, following shareholder approval and regulatory clearances in the US, EU, UK, and Israel.
Combined disclosed transaction value: $57 billion. Both companies retained Israeli engineering centers. Both founders' alumni networks are already building what comes next.
The Wiz transaction
Per Times of Israel and Reuters, Google first approached Wiz in 2024 with a $23 billion offer; Wiz CEO Assaf Rappaport declined. Revised talks resumed in early 2025, culminating in the formal agreement announced March 2025. The deal cleared US Department of Justice review in October 2025, EU and Australian approval in February 2026, and Singapore and Japan in March 2026.
Wiz crossed $1 billion in annual recurring revenue in 2025; half the Fortune 100 are customers. Anticipated growth rate is 40% in 2026. Wiz now operates inside Google Cloud while retaining its brand and multi-cloud commitment.
The strategic logic: Google was losing enterprise cloud security mindshare to AWS and Azure. Wiz delivers a unified view of code, cloud, and runtime that scales across multi-cloud environments — exactly the gap Google needed to close.
The CyberArk transaction
Per Palo Alto Networks investor releases, the company announced the agreement to acquire CyberArk on July 30, 2025, in a cash-and-stock transaction valued at approximately $25 billion. CyberArk shareholders received $45 in cash plus 2.2005 shares of Palo Alto Networks common stock for each ordinary share. Shareholders approved on November 13, 2025. The deal closed February 11, 2026.
Palo Alto Networks announced plans for a secondary listing on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange under ticker "CYBR," while continuing to trade on NASDAQ.
The strategic logic: identity is the new attack surface. Per Palo Alto Networks, machine identities now outnumber human identities by more than 80 to one, and nearly 90% of organizations have experienced identity-related breaches. CyberArk's privileged access management is being integrated into Palo Alto Networks' Cortex and Strata platforms to deliver real-time identity-aware security across human, machine, and AI agentic identities.
What the two transactions have in common
Three patterns.
First — both founding teams emerged from the Israeli military cyber and signals pipeline. Wiz's four founders served nearly a decade in IDF cyber units before founding the company in 2020. CyberArk's founding team emerged from a similar pathway.
Second — both companies retained Israel as their primary engineering center. Even at $32B and $25B respectively, neither was redomiciled.
Third — both acquisitions are explicitly AI-anchored. Google's framing is "secure every cloud and AI workload." Palo Alto Networks' framing is "secure every identity — human, machine, and agent." The cybersecurity consolidation is happening as a response to AI infrastructure expansion, not in parallel to it.
What independent Israeli cyber looks like after $57 billion in absorption
The talent disperses. The capital recycles. The next category leaders are already visible.
Identity for AI agents. Oasis Security raised a $120 million Series B in March 2026, focused on machine and AI agent identity.
Cyber resilience. Dream became Israel's newest unicorn in February 2025, raising $100 million Series B led by Bain Capital Ventures at a $1.1 billion valuation.
Cloud-native categories. Aqua, Sentra, and the next wave of cloud-native security companies operate adjacent to where Wiz operated.
Automated validation. Pentera and Novee are running automated penetration testing at scale.
Source data: SEC filings, Google Cloud Blog, Palo Alto Networks investor releases, CyberArk investor releases, TechCrunch, Times of Israel, Reuters, Calcalist, Globes.