alt Hacker NewsThe best decision for Google happened like 10 years ago when they started manufacturing their own silicon for crunching neural nets. No matter if they had a really good crystal ball back then, smart people, time travel machine or just luck, it pays for them now. They don't need to participate in that Ponzi scheme that OpenAI, Nvidia and Microsoft created, and they don't need to wait in line to buy Nvidia cards.
It had to have been launched longer ago than that because their first public-facing, TPU-using generative product was Inbox Smart Reply, which launched more than 10 years ago. Add to that however much time had to pass up to the point where they had the hardware in production. I think the genesis of the project must have been 12-15 years ago.