And not everything it gives is easy to see on the bottom line. I know of some great people (like "Best In Their Field" great) attracted to google to work on X

And not everything it gives is easy to see on the bottom line. I know of some great people (like "Best In Their Field" great) attracted to google to work on X projects. Then while they're there, they may as well spread some of their knowledge to other google projects. Or the tech developed there failed as a standalone product, but the knowledge gained folded in to another project. Even if every "moonshot" project failed, it may have given benefits to the company as a whole. Though at some point I do wonder if the intent of google X projects is to fail as a standalone product, and just be folded into more core projects....