Stanford students boo, walk out as Sundar Pichai speaks over Google's Israel, ICE ties
Google CEO Sundar Pichai faced a student protest at Stanford's graduation ceremony, with walkouts and boos directed at the company's contracts with the Israeli military and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Over the weekend, Google CEO Sundar Pichai encountered a significant protest while delivering the commencement speech at Stanford University, where he earned his graduate degree. Approximately 200 graduating students walked out, and many others loudly booed the tech executive. The protest focused on Google's defense-related contracts, including Project Nimbus—the controversial $1.2 billion cloud and AI deal shared with Amazon for the Israeli military—and its relationship with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Protesters carried signs reading "ICE SPIES WITH GOOGLE AI" and "GENOCIDE RUNS ON GOOGLE," as well as "FREE FREE PALESTINE." They waved Palestinian flags and chanted "free Palestine," according to videos and a press release associated with the protest. A statement from the organizers 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 coordinated by campus groups including Stanford Students for Justice in Palestine, No Tech for Apartheid, and Tech for Liberation.
Google's involvement in Project Nimbus has drawn repeated protests both inside and outside the company. In 2024, Google fired 28 employees for protesting the contract, and internal dissent has continued since. The Electronic Frontier Foundation recently criticized Google and other tech firms for "choosing to look the other way" regarding Israel's use of their services. Amazon also supports Project Nimbus, while Microsoft faced similar criticism but later restricted Israeli government use of its technology after an investigation revealed mass surveillance.
The student protest drew backlash from some business leaders. Vinod Khosla, billionaire co-founder of Sun Microsystems, posted on X that the protest was "biased, idiotic, short-sighted and very selfish," adding that students ignored "the bottom 3 billion people on this planet that could benefit from AI."
Pichai's appearance at Stanford is part of a broader pattern of graduation speakers facing boos over AI-related issues, but this protest specifically targeted Google's business decisions rather than general AI hype. Young people increasingly view AI as a threat to jobs and society, but this incident showed targeted anger at corporate policies.
