After rejecting Google takeover, cyber firm Wiz says it will IPO ‘when the stars align’
LONDON — Cybersecurity firm Wiz is seeking to hit $1 billion of annual recurring revenues next year, the company’s billionaire co-founder Roy Reznik told CNBC, adding that the firm will go public “when the stars align.”
Wiz makes software that connects to cloud storage providers like Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Azure and scans for everything it stores in the cloud, helping organizations identify and remove risks in their cloud environments. It was founded by four Israeli friends while they served in 8200, the intelligence unit of Israel’s army, and most of Wiz’s engineering personnel are still based in Tel Aviv, Israel.
Earlier this year, the company rejected a $23-billion acquisition bid from Google, which would have marked the tech giant’s largest-ever takeover. At the time, Wiz CEO Assaf Rappaport said the startup was “flattered” by the offer, but would remain an independent company and aim to list instead.
Speaking with CNBC at Wiz’s new office space in London, Reznik said that the company has received offers from “many people that want to get their hands on Wiz stock” — but that, while “very flattering,” the firm still thinks it can do it alone by going public.
“We’ve already broken a few records as a private company, and we believe we can also break a few more records as an independent public company as well,” Reznik said.
Four-year-old Wiz has raised $1.9 billion in venture capital to date, including $1 billion secured this year in a funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Thrive Capital at a valuation of $12 billion.
In 2022, Wiz said it had reached $100 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR), up from just $1 million in 18 months. At the time, the startup said it was “the fastest software company to achieve this feat.”
Reznik, who is the vice president of research and development at Wiz, said the firm now hopes to double from the $500 million of ARR it achieved this year and hit $1 billion in ARR in 2025, which CEO Rappaport cited as a key condition before the company goes public.
UK expansion
Wiz has been expanding its presence internationally, with a particular focus on Europe, from where it sources 35% of its revenues. Last month, the firm opened its first European office in London.
“I think the talent here is amazing, and the ecosystem is amazing,” Reznik told CNBC. “We have always been very much involved in Europe — and specifically the U.K. — and I feel like it’s a natural evolvement of Wiz to double down even more here in London and the U.K.”
The U.K. represents a major growth opportunity when it comes to cybersecurity, Reznik said, adding that recent events like the cyberattack on National Health Service hospitals and an incident affecting Transport for London have “roof topped” the level of interest in the kinds of products Wiz offers.
“The cloud market is going to reach $1 trillion over the next next few years,” Reznik, who moved from Israel to the U.K. just three months ago, told CNBC. “This year is going to be around $700 million, while security is just 4% out of that, I would say. So that makes it a $30 billion market, which is huge.”
Speaking about the U.K. market, Reznik said: “We see a lot of interest here. Many of the largest banks and retailers, are Wiz customers. But we’re also seeing a huge potential for growth.”
Wiz’s customers include online retailer ASOS and digital bank Revolut as customers in the U.K.
A Tesla Model 3 vehicle warns the driver to keep their hands on the wheel and be prepared to take over at anytime while driving using FSD (Full Self-Driving) in Encinitas, California, U.S., October 18, 2023.
Mike Blake | Reuters
Tesla faces a new investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, or NHTSA, concerning issues with its “Full Self-Driving” systems, and whether they are safe to use in fog, glaring sun or other “reduced roadway visibility conditions.”
The probe follows an incident in which a Tesla driver who had been using FSD, struck and killed a pedestrian, and other FSD-involved collisions during reduced roadway visibility conditions.
Records posted to the NHTSA website on Friday morning said the purpose of the new probe would be to assess:
“The ability of FSD’s engineering controls to detect and respond appropriately to reduced roadway visibility conditions; whether any other similar FSD crashes have occurred in reduced roadway visibility conditions and, if so, the contributing circumstances for those crashes,” among other things.
The agency will also look into Tesla’s over-the-air, software updates to its FSD systems, which are now marketed as “Full Self-Driving (Supervised),” to understand the “timing, purpose, and capabilities of any such updates, as well as Tesla’s assessment of their safety impact.”
The “preliminary evaluation” by the NHTSA pertains to a vehicle population of around 2.4 million Tesla EVs on U.S. roads including: Model S and X vehicles produced from 2016 to 2024, Model 3 vehicles produced from 2017 to 2024, Model Y vehicles produced from 2020 to 2024, and Cybertruck vehicles produced this year and last, which give drivers the option to use Tesla’s FSD.
FSD, which the company now refers to as a “partial driving automation system,” is Tesla’s paid, premium driver assistance option. But Tesla has offered it to all drivers for a monthlong free trial in the U.S., previously.
The U.S. federal vehicle safety regulator tracks collisions involving the use of automakers’ advanced driver assistance systems, like Tesla’s Autopilot or FSD. As of Oct. 1, 2024, the NHTSA had tracked 1,399 incidents in which Tesla’s driver assistance systems were engaged within 30 seconds of the collision, and 31 of those had resulted in fatalities.
Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The company recently held a marketing event in which CEO Elon Musk said Tesla expects to have “unsupervised FSD” up and running in Texas and California next year in the company’s Model 3 and Model Y electric vehicles.
Musk has promised driverless vehicles for years. But Tesla has not yet produced or shown a vehicle that is safe to use on public roads without a human at the wheel, ready to steer or brake at any time.
Pat Gelsinger, CEO, of Intel Corporation, testifies during the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation hearing on semiconductors titled Developing Next Generation Technology for Innovation, in Russell Senate Office Building on Wednesday, March 23, 2022.
Tom Williams | CQ-Roll Call, Inc. | Getty Images
Intel is looking to sell at least a minority stake in its Altera unit in a transaction that would raise several billion dollars in cash for the struggling chipmaker, according to people familiar with the matter.
Intel is looking for a deal that values Altera at around $17 billion, said the people, who requested anonymity to speak freely about confidential information. Intel purchased Altera for $16.7 billion in 2015.
Following a steep drop in its stock price and extended stretch of market share losses, Intel has been looking to make drastic changes. The company made overtures to a number of private equity and strategic investors this week about Altera, the sources said. Intel has expressed to some of those investors that it would be possible to acquire a majority stake in the business.
A representative for Intel declined to comment. The sale process represents an abrupt change from Intel’s prior commentary on Altera. As recently last month, CEO Pat Gelsinger said that Intel’s leadership considered the business to be a core part of Intel’s future.
Intel has previously said it could look to monetize Altera business through an IPO, possibly as soon as 2026. But the idea of taking strategic or private equity investment would be a marked acceleration of those plans.
Gelsinger and his leadership team have previously said that Intel understands its disadvantaged position and is working aggressively to remedy it. Selling a stake in Altera might allow Intel to more easily pursue its semiconductor fabrication ambitions and assure investors that it has a future as an independent company.
But the sale process also comes as Qualcomm has expressed interest in acquiring its onetime rival, a deal that would face fierce regulatory scrutiny and potentially reshape the semiconductor industry.
Intel shares have dropped 50% this year, as the company has been trounced by Nvidia in artificial intelligence chips and has lost share to Advanced Micro Devices in its core PC and data center market.
WATCH: Biggest impediment to any acquisition of Intel is regulators
This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.
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