[nowprovision]

Not sure this is the case, amz data centres to other amz data centres in most cases you go across ntt, Tata etc. Google on the other hand is different e.g. Taiwan to Ireland all google network. Spin up vms and traceroute

[mino]

Careful: lack of middle hops in a traceroute isn't necessarily sign that there are no transit providers. Many times a carrier/enterprise may rent overlay (i.e., MPLS) transport capacity which won't appear in your traceroute.

Although, in Google's specific case, you are probably right and this does not apply.