Intro

According to Index Ventures Partner Shardul Shah, cybersecurity startup Wiz sits “at the center of three tailwinds: AI, cloud, and security spend.” Those tailwinds powered what just became the largest venture-backed acquisition in history — Google's $32 billion deal, finalized after a declined 2024 offer, antitrust review on both sides of the Atlantic, and an extra $9 billion to sweeten the pot. 

On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Anthony Ha, Rebecca Bellan, and Sean O'Kane sit down with Shah to dig into what made Wiz worth that price tag, and also cover more of the week's headlines. 

Listen to the full episode to hear about: 

• Why a DOGE employee allegedly walked out of the Social Security Administration with a thumb drive full of personal data, and the questions it raises about access to sensitive systems 

• Taya and Sandbar, the latest startups betting voice is the next big AI interface — but do normal consumers agree? 

• Palmer Luckey raising for a retro gaming startup at a $1 billion valuation 

• Meta’s acquisition of Moltbook, the viral AI agent social network 

• The latest in the Anthropic vs. DoD saga, including tech workers at OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft signing their names on a legal brief in support of Anthropic 

Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. 

Chapters: 

00:00 Intro 

00:16 Did a DOGE employee steal your SSN? 

02:53 AI note-taking wearables are back: Taya & Sandbar 

09:18 Palmer Lucky's retro gaming startup ModRetro 

13:39 Meta acquires AI agent social network Moltbot 

18:54 Inside Google's $32B Wiz acquisition with Shardul Shah 

28:41 Anthropic's lawsuit against the DoD 

38:40 Outro 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices