While the U.S. cleared Google’s $32 billion deal with Wiz last November and the cloud provider is reportedly facing a $3.2 billion breakup fee if the deal collapses, the next test is in Europe, where the European Commission has launched a Phase I antitrust investigation (Reuters, 2026).
A preliminary decision is due by February 10, and while most cases don’t move beyond this stage, the Commission can escalate to a more detailed Phase II review, especially if questions of market concentration or infrastructure dependency arise.
The Google-Wiz deal is the largest cloud security acquisition to date and one of eight cybersecurity M&A deals in 2025 that exceeded $1 billion (Security Week, 2026).
With previous acquisitions like Mandiant, Chronicle, and Siemplify, Google has steadily strengthened its portfolio to compete with Microsoft and Amazon. Wiz adds something unique to that mix: a visibility layer that’s widely deployed, highly trusted, and designed from the start to sit outside any single cloud ecosystem. Integrating Wiz could help Google sharpen its security offerings, improve cross-platform analytics, and offer more seamless protection for multi-cloud clients. For customers already in the Google Cloud ecosystem, that’s a clear win.
Yet there’s a natural question: what happens to Wiz’s neutrality when it becomes part of a hyperscaler?
There’s no suggestion that Wiz will stop working across clouds. But integrations evolve. Roadmaps shift. Even without any intentional steering, feature alignment tends to favor in-house systems. For customers, this raises questions worth watching. Will Wiz continue to serve as a truly neutral layer? Will it maintain equal fidelity across clouds as Google’s own cloud services become more intertwined with AI, analytics, and edge computing?
Those questions don’t have clear answers yet.
The European Commission’s Phase I review focuses not just on competition, but on strategic dependency. Consolidating such a powerful tool under one of the world’s largest cloud providers raises long-term questions about control, interoperability, and transparency.
Wiz gave enterprises clarity across cloud platforms. Google’s challenge now is to preserve that clarity, even as it brings the company closer to its own ecosystem. That’s not an easy balance… But it’s an important one. Because in cloud security, trust isn’t just about encryption or compliance. It’s about who owns the lens and whether that lens still helps you see clearly, even when you’re looking at someone else’s cloud.
Whether or not the EU escalates to a Phase II investigation, the Wiz deal has already pushed a vital conversation forward. Cloud markets aren’t just about pricing models or uptime guaranteeism they’re about who controls the architecture of choice.
If Google can integrate Wiz while preserving its neutrality and transparency, it could set a positive precedent for how platform-owned tools serve broader ecosystems. But if alignment creeps in too quickly, it could reinforce fears that the cloud is consolidating faster than customers, or regulators, can respond.