You do need a lot of computational power and sufficient test bed in the long run. You certainly can fo AI research on a dozen computers, but would be far better

You do need a lot of computational power and sufficient test bed in the long run. You certainly can fo AI research on a dozen computers, but would be far better if someone else handle the infrastructure and you just do the research. It makes sense to partner with the giant tech. Also, well-known researchers almost always do joint research with researchers at giant tech because they know each other already.