Redhat, Microsoft and vmware are major contributors to the product. Few of the founders work for Google anymore. Google probably has the largest influence but it is very much a community.
For example the decision to avoid donating Istio to the CNCF[0].
> That was Google's standard response about Istio for years. But people familiar with Istio's behind-the-scenes discussions said that Google had changed its mind late last year, driven by a faction within the company that believed donating Kubernetes to a foundation was a strategic mistake. When contacted by Protocol earlier this year, Google declined to clarify its plans for Istio.
Google is not completely evil, but it is not my friend, it's a corporation that isn't even a not-for-profit nor non-profit.
[0]: https://www.protocol.com/google-cloud-kurian-istio-foundatio...