This is wrong. AE is profitable. They have invested so much into AE. Every year at I/O since AE was launched, Google has been presenting the progress in AE. Man

This is wrong. AE is profitable. They have invested so much into AE. Every year at I/O since AE was launched, Google has been presenting the progress in AE. Many of the top companies today are using either AE or EC2 (or both). It is impossible for them to drop AE. They might consider moving away at some point, but in the next 5-10 years it is impossible. But the longer the service remains running, the harder it is for both Google and customers to move away. Eventually, if someone crazy, more competitive comes along, and when customers fall behind they will begin a deprecation and that deprecation period will be years long. When that does happen, Google is no longer attractive. Google will not profit anymore.