Earlier quoted context omitted.
> A playground for extremely smart people Which is pretty much a definition of a good research lab.
I believe that the second clause in hendzen's reply is the point of the statement. > ... they don't want their competitors to hire. i.e. that the purpose is not to get them to do research for Google, but to stop them doing research or development for anyone else.
Unless they're paying them to goof around on tennis court, I don't think it matters. It's not really important for who they're doing the research (except maybe that Google is the least evil company I can think of), because ultimately whatever they invent will benefit the whole mankind.