Wiz Founder’s Timely Cyber Bet May Secure $23 Billion Payday (1)

Two months ago, Wiz Inc. was basking in a major milestone: It had just raised a $1 billion funding round, boosting its valuation to $12 billion. Investors were excited about the cloud security startup, which was absorbing $400 million in acquisitions, rapidly expanding its US footprint and starting to eye an initial public offering.

Then Google called.

Now, Wiz, which is run by Israelis and headquartered in New York, is in talks with Google’s parent Alphabet Inc. and could walk away with as much as $23 billion just four years after its founding. Alphabet and Wiz haven’t commented on ...