Nir Zuk, an Israeli billionaire and founder of cybersecurity firm Palo Alto Networks, has applied to acquire voting shares of DMG Bancshares, the holding company of Irvine, California-based Liberty Bank, according to a notice published Wednesday in the Federal Register.
It is unclear, from the notice, whether the shares would constitute a majority of the bank, but The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that Zuk sought to acquire the largest stake in Liberty from private-equity firms Stone Point Capital and Reverence Capital Partners, citing people familiar with the matter.
Comments regarding the application must be received by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco or the Fed Board of Governors by April 30.
A spokesperson for the Fed declined to comment.
The investment may give Zuk a platform to demonstrate artificial intelligence tools’ capabilities in financial services, said Todd Baker, a senior fellow at Columbia University’s Richman Center for Business, Law and Public Policy.
“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,” Baker told American Banker.
That would continue a pattern for Zuk, who left Palo Alto Networks last August. He then co-founded eOS, an agentic AI platform, and brought the firm's technology to Esh Bank, an Israeli digital challenger. Israeli card company Isracard bought Esh Bank last month in a deal reportedly worth $130 million.
Terms of the deal for Liberty, a commercial bank with $442 million in assets, were not disclosed. However, CTech reported that Zuk is expected to join DMG Bancshares’ board.
Zuk’s efforts would be just the latest push by tech billionaires and firms to take up space in financial services. Tech billionaire Palmer Luckey’s Erebor Bank, aimed at startups and high-net-worth individuals in the crypto, AI, defense and manufacturing sectors, received a national banking charter in February.
Tech juggernaut OpenAI bought the personal finance platform Hiro this week.
And Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has hinted that he plans to launch the digital wallet and payments app X Money this month.
Liberty Bank did not respond to a request for comment.
