I think this will end up being Google's acquisition hunt fund in the long run. Get in on the ground floor of promising startups in areas Google wants to expand

I think this will end up being Google's acquisition hunt fund in the long run. Get in on the ground floor of promising startups in areas Google wants to expand into and see how things shake out. If things go well, you have leverage to get a Google buyout. If the tech takes a different tack from what Google wants they can exert influence to push it in a different direction or help shop them to other companies to recoup investment and grab top talent to come work at Google. Sounds like a decent long term acquisition identification strategy to me.