Stanford graduates walk out during Google CEO speech

More than 100 graduates walked out of Stanford University’s commencement ceremony on Sunday, June 14, as Google CEO Sundar Pichai took the stage to deliver the keynote address. The protest, organized by groups including Students for Justice in Palestine and No Tech for Apartheid, featured chants of “Free, free Palestine” and “shame on you” as students left Stanford Stadium carrying Palestinian flags.

The demonstration targeted Google’s involvement in Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion cloud computing and artificial intelligence contract the company shares with Amazon to provide services to the Israeli government. Activists argue the technology could be used by Israeli military and security agencies. Google has stated the contract is for government cloud services and has denied such claims. The controversy has previously caused internal strife, leading Google to fire dozens of employees in 2024 following workplace sit-ins and protests over the same project.

Despite the disruption, Pichai, a Stanford alumnus who earned a master’s degree there in 1995, continued his address. He largely avoided the topics of artificial intelligence, geopolitics, or the protest, instead focusing on a...