The bar for success for Google and Meta is much lower than Nvidia - at least for internal usage. Any dollar amount that Google saves on CapEx or OpEx by using custom silicon instead of buying Nvidia helps bring down the cost of revenue. They don't have to match Nvidia on raw performance, and can aim at being better at performance per watt or performance per dollar (TCO) for larger workloads, and IIRC, Google is already doing for some internal inferencing tasks.
> I would also note that at this phase of a cycle in tech trying to save billions takes your eye off the prize
Big Tech companies are conglomerate-ish and can multitask. The search engine folk aren't pushing stuff back onto the backlog to put out fires delaying chip tape-out, and I bet the respective CEOs aren't burning braincycles micromanaging silicon development either; directors 2-3 rungs below the C-suite can motivate and execute on such an undertaking. The answer to "I need a budget of $300M in order to save the company $5-15B over 3 years" is "How soon can you start?"
> I would also note that at this phase of a cycle in tech trying to save billions takes your eye off the prize
Big Tech companies are conglomerate-ish and can multitask. The search engine folk aren't pushing stuff back onto the backlog to put out fires delaying chip tape-out, and I bet the respective CEOs aren't burning braincycles micromanaging silicon development either; directors 2-3 rungs below the C-suite can motivate and execute on such an undertaking. The answer to "I need a budget of $300M in order to save the company $5-15B over 3 years" is "How soon can you start?"