Maybe the data centers are a separate off-shoot and all the other services "license" from it. Who knows what smart individuals could come up with in that regard

Maybe the data centers are a separate off-shoot and all the other services "license" from it. Who knows what smart individuals could come up with in that regard. It's like untangling a giant code-base at the end of the day. Right now, the data centers (and other google properties/capabilities) are kinda like a bunch of global variables/state/functions. By splitting google up, you have to identify interfaces and contracts between large silos and make sure all interactions go across those boundaries instead of being "deeply" intertwined and reliant with each other. Who knows, this might even make Google more competitive at the end of the day. If anything, it could make the "ROI" and financial metrics of their individual products more explicit instead of nebulous "cross-subsidizing" centers.