Counterfactual: Had COVID Hit a Year Earlier, Google Cloud Might Have Fallen Off the Map
matt_slotnick · x · 2026-10-30
An industry counterfactual about Google Cloud: Thomas Kurian had barely a year at the helm of GCP before COVID hit. Had GCP entered 2020 poorly positioned and faded while AWS and Azure accelerated, the author argues, Google's overall reputation today would look very different — underscoring how pivotal Kurian's early tenure was to GCP establishing itself.
More from Companies & People
- Google stock down 13% as earnings miss by roughly 30% despite cloud strength — ivan_bezdomny · 2026-10-30
- Engineer shares resume screening heuristics: empty GitHub links get you passed over — iskander · 2026-10-30
- Barclays: Healthcare firm fine-tuned open model to 93% accuracy in 3 days, 98% cheaper than frontier — eliano · 2026-10-30
- Anthropic researcher slams tech media: cite primary sources or shut up — jachiam0 · 2026-10-30
- Health Frontier NYC Hackathon lands Dec 4-5 with ~100 builders on AI x biology — HealthcareAIGuy · 2026-10-30
- AI is rebuilding the agency — one task burned $8,000 in credits unnoticed — alvelda · 2026-10-30