You're exactly right. Investment into STEM education would be a very slow, inefficient way for FANG et al to reduce worker pay compared to collusion (which they

You're exactly right. Investment into STEM education would be a very slow, inefficient way for FANG et al to reduce worker pay compared to collusion (which they were busted for in 2014) or more aggressively focusing on hiring overseas instead of the US. It's true there are plenty of other self-interested reasons for these companies to fund CS education: PR, getting new devs trained on their toolchain (my college CS classes were in the Gates Building, and friendly Microsoft evangelists brought pizza and free copies of visual studio to my freshman intro CS class), and growing the tech industry overall when they control and monetize the underlying platforms. But then, there is also the much more mundane explanation that these charitable contributions are a drop in the bucket compared to these companies' overall budgets, that they are run by human beings who see themselves as doing good and who are predisposed to think CS is a great path to a good future.