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Nir Zuk, the founder of Palo Alto Networks, has applied with regulators to acquire California-based Liberty Bank, N.A. through the purchasing of shares.<\/p>\n
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Zuk, an Israeli entrepreneur and billionaire, submitted a request to the Federal Reserve to acquire voting shares of the $442 million-asset commercial bank under the Change in Bank Control Act.<\/p>\n
According to a regulatory The notice did not specify whether the acquisition would be for a majority stake in the company. Liberty Bank did not respond to a request for comment by time of publication.<\/p>\n Zuk is not the first tech entrepreneur to try entering financial services through banking. Todd Baker, managing principal of Broadmoor Consulting and a professor at Columbia University, told American Banker that the investment appears to be a “demonstration project” for Zuk and fellow investors.<\/p>\n “By introducing AI-based systems into the operations of a small U.S. bank in a low-risk, small-scale way, the investors hope to provide an AI template for the industry and potentially a platform for expansion,” he said.<\/p>\n Zuk founded cybersecurity company Zuk then co-founded eOS, an agentic-AI platform, and brought the startup’s technology to the Israeli digital challenger bank Esh Bank. The digital bank entered a sale agreement with Israeli card company Isracard last month at a reported