I'm not sure that's true. They don't reveal separate numbers for GCP, but they put it under "Google Cloud" umbrella with Google Docs and other products. The revenues are growing, but they're still losing money: https://www.crn.com/news/cloud/alphabet-earnings-google-clou...

It was a joke. The rumours were real though.

The exact framing was a statement that Google execs had given Cloud a deadline to reach a certain portion of the market, or it might lose funding.

https://www.theinformation.com/articles/google-brass-set-202...

No it was based as ocdtrekkie said on supposedly internal leaks about Google wanting to be a leader soon or to give up the cloud market.