Alphabet, the parent company of Google, is once again engaged in advanced discussions to acquire Wiz, a cloud cybersecurity startup, according to a person familiar with the negotiations. The two companies had previously come close to reaching a deal valued at $23 billion last summer, but the transaction ultimately fell through.

This time around, the proposed price is reportedly higher, with the person indicating that the figure being discussed is around $30 billion, as The Wall Street Journal has reported.

Thomas Kurian, the head of Google’s cloud division, is leading the effort once again.

Google Cloud views Wiz’s cloud security products as a strong fit for its customer base, and Wiz’s annual recurring revenue (ARR) is also attractive. As of last July, Wiz’s ARR stood at $500 million, with plans to reach $1 billion in ARR by 2025, as previously reported by TechCrunch.

However, a $30 billion price tag would likely represent a significant premium. Wiz’s last outside funding round, which closed in May, was valued at $1 billion and valued the company at $12 billion. Since then, Wiz’s valuation has reportedly increased to $16 billion in an employee tender offer late last year.

Although Wiz has stated that it does not plan to go public in 2025, the company has hired Fazal Merchant, a former executive at Dreamworks and Tanium, as its chief financial officer. The hiring of a CFO can sometimes be a sign that a company is preparing for a public offering.

One of the reasons the previous talks between Google and Wiz failed was the inability of the two companies to agree on whether Wiz would remain a separate division or be integrated into Google Cloud, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The high level of regulatory scrutiny for large transactions during the Biden administration also contributed to the breakdown of the deal last summer, according to the person familiar with the negotiations.

Other investors have informed TechCrunch that they are seeing an increase in M&A activity, with many returning to the negotiation table in the hope that FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson will be less restrictive on large transactions than his predecessor, Lina Khan, a person familiar with several such negotiations said.

Wiz, which is based in New York and Israel, was founded in 2020 by four former Israeli military officers who previously co-founded Adallom, a cloud cybersecurity company that Microsoft acquired for $320 million.

Wiz’s backers include prominent investors such as Andreessen Horowitz, Cyberstarts, Index Ventures, Insight Partners, and Sequoia.

A spokesperson for Wiz declined to comment on the ongoing deal conversations.