Sundar Pichai faces boos and walkout at Stanford graduation over Google's Israel and ICE ties
Google CEO Sundar Pichai faced a protest at Stanford University's commencement, with about 200 graduates walking out and others booing him. The protest targeted Google's contracts with the Israeli military and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Over the weekend, Google CEO Sundar Pichai encountered a student protest while delivering his commencement speech at Stanford University, where he earned his graduate degree in materials science and engineering. Approximately 200 graduating students walked out of the ceremony, while others loudly booed the tech executive. The protest focused on Google's defense ties, including Project Nimbus — the controversial $1.2 billion contract with Amazon to provide cloud and AI services to the Israeli military — as well as its relationship with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Student signs included phrases such as “ICE SPIES WITH GOOGLE AI” and “GENOCIDE RUNS ON GOOGLE,” as well as “FREE FREE PALESTINE,” according to a press release associated with the protest. Students waved Palestinian flags and chanted “free Palestine,” as shown in online videos of the protest. The walkout was organized by several campus activist groups, including Stanford Students for Justice in Palestine, No Tech for Apartheid, and Tech for Liberation.
A statement associated with the protest read: “We are walking out because we refuse to glorify the corporations that fuel this violence and exercise our power to choose differently.” TechCrunch reached out to Google for comment but did not receive a response by the time of publication.
As the war in Gaza has continued, Google's involvement in Project Nimbus has sparked protests both inside and outside the company. In 2024, Google fired 28 workers for protesting the contract, and internal dissent has persisted. The Electronic Frontier Foundation recently criticized Google and other firms for “choosing to look the other way” regarding Israel's use of their services. Amazon also supports the project. Microsoft, which faced similar criticism, restricted the Israeli government's use of its technology after an investigation found it was being used for mass surveillance.
The student protest drew criticism from business leaders online. Vinod Khosla, billionaire co-founder of Sun Microsystems and a prominent venture capitalist, 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 commencement speakers facing boos over AI, but this protest was notably targeted at specific business decisions rather than AI hype in general. Young people increasingly believe AI threatens their job prospects and society.
