Nir Zuk, the founder of Palo Alto Networks, has struck a deal to acquire California-based Liberty Bank, reported The Wall Street Journal, citing sources.
The transaction is intended to provide a base for developing AI tools for the financial sector, the sources said.
Financial terms of the deal were not available.
Zuk has applied for approval from US regulators to buy the biggest holding in Liberty from private-equity groups Stone Point Capital and Reverence Capital Partners, they said.
Fintech investor Betsy Cohen and her son Daniel Cohen are also expected to invest in the transaction.
Liberty, which is based in Irvine, California, has roughly $440m in assets and provides banking services to consumers and companies across Southern California and the Bay Area.
Its chief executive, Don Griffith, left another regional lender in the late 1980s and later worked with private-equity firm KKR to identify possible acquisitions among banks disrupted by a credit crisis.
The acquisition brings together several of the investment areas Zuk has pursued beyond his position at Palo Alto.
He co-founded eOS, an AI-agentic platform, and introduced the start-up’s technology at Esh Bank, an Israeli lender in which he has also invested.
Esh recently agreed to sell itself to Isracard, Israel’s largest credit-card company.
In September 2025, Esh Bank revealed plans to launch a revenue sharing model with its customers, starting in early 2026.
The bank’s equal sharing model will allocate 50% of the interest revenues generated from customer deposits back to their accounts on a weekly basis.
People familiar with Zuk’s views said he had been looking to back the US banking sector as it moves towards wider use of AI.
The move would place Zuk among a broader group of technology and crypto entrepreneurs entering parts of the conventional financial system.
A bank started by Palmer Luckey, founder of weapons maker Anduril, received a national charter from US regulators in February.
Zuk founded Palo Alto two decades ago and remained the company’s chief technology officer until his retirement last year, when he also stepped down from the board.
