About 200 Stanford students walked out and others booed Google CEO Sundar Pichai during his commencement speech, as protests targeted Project Nimbus—a $1.2 billion cloud and AI contract with the Israeli military—and Google’s ties to U.S. Immigration and Custom
When Sundar Pichai stepped to the microphone for Stanford’s commencement, the reaction wasn’t the warm kind graduations usually aim for.
Over the weekend, about 200 students from the graduating class reportedly walked out as he delivered his commencement speech. Others stayed behind to boo loudly.
The protest was aimed at Google’s defense ties. including Project Nimbus—a controversial $1.2 billion contract shared with Amazon to provide cloud and AI services to the Israeli military. Students also drew attention to Google’s relationship with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. with protest signs using phrases like “ICE SPIES WITH GOOGLE AI. ” “GENOCIDE RUNS ON GOOGLE. ” and “FREE FREE PALESTINE.” Palestinian flags were waved. and the chant “free Palestine” was heard in online video of the demonstration.
A statement associated with the protest said. “We are walking out because we refuse to glorify the corporations that fuel this violence and exercise our power to choose differently.” The walkout was organized by campus activist groups including Stanford Students for Justice in Palestine. No Tech for Apartheid. and Tech for Liberation.
Google did not leave the moment unanswered for long—TechCrunch reached out to Google for comment.
This was not just campus anger sparked by a single speech. The contract has become a flashpoint as the war in Gaza has raged. drawing protests from inside and outside the company. In 2024, Google fired 28 workers for protesting the Nimbus contract. Since then, internal dissent over the issue has continued.
Outside criticism has kept pressure on. The Electronic Frontier Foundation accused Google and other companies of “choosing to look the other way” on Israel’s use of their services.
Project Nimbus also has powerful backers. Amazon has supported the program. and Microsoft has faced its own wave of scrutiny for ties to Israeli government use of technology—though the company restricted the Israeli government’s use of its technology after an investigation found cloud services were being used to mass-surveil Palestinians.
The student protest didn’t just split campus. It drew a harsh response from business leaders online. including Vinod Khosla. the billionaire co-founder of Sun Microsystems and a prominent Silicon Valley venture capitalist. Khosla posted on X that the protest was “biased. idiotic. short-sighted and very selfish. ” adding that the students “ignored the bottom 3 billion people on this planet that could benefit from AI” while being driven by “their misinformed selfish self-interest.”.
Pichai’s appearance at Stanford fits into a broader pattern that’s shown up at college graduation ceremonies around the country. Speakers have been booed when attempting to spark excitement about AI. but the anger directed at Pichai stood out for its focus. Students weren’t reacting to AI hype in general. The animus was tied to the business decisions made by the company he runs.
And beneath the noise was a familiar fear for many young people: that AI could threaten jobs and reshape society in ways they didn’t ask for—now tied, in this protest, to specific contracts and specific relationships.
Sundar Pichai Stanford graduation Google Project Nimbus $1.2 billion contract Amazon Israeli military ICE U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Palestinian flags TechCrunch Electronic Frontier Foundation Vinod Khosla
Commencement is supposed to be respectful… but yeah it’s Stanford so of course everyone’s gotta make it political.
I saw the headline and thought they were booing him for something else? Like didn’t he just graduate people? Nimbus sounds like a cloud thing but now it’s like war contracts?? Wild.
Free Palestine signs at a speech and people walked out… I get being mad but also how is this Pichai’s fault specifically? It’s probably the government ordering it and Google just sells the services. Also ICE is immigration, so why are they saying ICE spies with Google AI?? makes no sense unless I’m missing something.
Project Nimbus, $1.2 billion, and then they fired 28 workers?? that’s the part that screams ‘maybe the protest isn’t just vibes.’ At the same time, can’t stand when people chant like they’re at a concert. But I also can’t ignore the “GENOCIDE RUNS ON GOOGLE” type stuff when it keeps coming up. Stanford really chose a CEO with all this baggage lol.