There's no way in hell it's getting shut down when it's that critical to business operations.

This is just not remotely plausible of a shutdown target. It also dates back to 2006. I'm struggling to think of even five Google products I would name as being less likely to be shut down.

This is unlike, say, Reader, which was canceled with no replacement to this day.

But to give some credit where it's due: reimbursing all Stadia purchases is a very customer friendly way to shut it down

I'm I dumb for assuming that google must use GCP internally? Therefore making it pretty much immune from being shut down. I guess they could go full internal tool with it?

That seems less improbable than even a lot of other cuts. A science experiment that doesn't have a clear path to an assistive driving revenue opportunity much less something transformational? I'd probably make an argument that they have to keep plugging on GCP but could cut Waymo loose without much collateral damage.