This is conjecture. Now I want to find out and see if one if these is right; but first let me guess. There are a few possibilities and I’ll, again, challenge myself to find the answer:

1. They competed for an award Google sponsored or held a competition for. Like an X Prize.
2. A board member was related to someone high up in Google (as in colleague, college room mate etc) or worked there previously.
3. Google wanted to fund something for PR reasons.