Google is preparing for the biggest acquisition in its 25-year history.

Google is reportedly in talks for the largest acquisition in its history.

The US tech giant is expected to pay $23 billion (£18 billion) for cybersecurity firm Wiz, Wall Street Journal reported, just four years after the startup was founded.

The potential deal is worth almost twice as much as Google’s largest acquisition to date: the $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility in 2012.

Wiz offers cloud security services to some of the world’s largest companies, including BMW, EA, and Salesforce.

The US startup was valued at $12 billion in May in a Series E funding round in which it raised $1 billion from Andressen Horowitz, Thrive Capital and other venture capitalists.

In 2022, Wiz became the fastest-growing software company in history, reaching $100 million in annual revenue less than 18 months after its founding.

“While it’s always nice to break records, our revenue is simply a measure of the value we deliver to customers,” Wiz co-founder Assaf Rappaport wrote in a blog post at the time.

“When we first launched Wiz, we set out to design the product with the world’s leading enterprises in mind, and the complexities and operational issues that exist in their environments. That’s a high bar for any startup.

“With Wiz, companies are achieving a new level of maturity in their cloud environments, improving security, increasing visibility, and increasing agility.”

Wiz tripled that amount last year, reaching $350 million in revenue in 2023, according to the company’s website.

Wiz declined to comment on the latest reports. Independent contacted Google for additional information.