[usrusr]

I read it as an erosion of the implicit assumption that ads bring in the money, and projects like Android and Chrome spend it, indirectly empowering the ads division. "Why can't we just focus on eating the cake? Those guys in the bakery with their funny hats and food-grade tooling should grow up and learn to stand on their own feet without our handouts." Pixel hardware is the closest thing Google has to a division that could sustain itself from revenue streams unrelated to ads.

Probably makes a good impression on shareholders who'd prefer to see all divisions disinvested but the money counting one.