Leg ups that have helped them become better at software engineering? Sure. Leg ups in the form of insider connections / elites? Less so, particularly for talent they're hiring today.
This is a significantly more meritocratic industry than most, and within the industry, the FANGs are relatively more meritocratic than smaller startups.
Meritocratic in the most boring uninteresting sense of the term where you literally only work on things in a way which Google tells you will help advance you up their ladders while not actually working on anything in a way you would find interesting in general.
This is a significantly more meritocratic industry than most, and within the industry, the FANGs are relatively more meritocratic than smaller startups.