Sundar Photosi faces boos, walks Stanford graduation over Israel’s Google, ICE ties

Over the weekend, Google CEO Sundar Pichai faced a small rebellion when he delivered his commencement speech at Stanford University, where he received his bachelor’s degree in materials science and engineering. About 200 students from the graduating class reportedly walked out, and some spoke ill of the chief technology officer.

The focus of the protest was Google’s defense relationships – including Project Nimbus, a controversial $1.2 billion contract, shared with Amazon, to provide cloud and AI services to the Israeli army, and its relationship with the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

Student signs included phrases such as “ICE PIES WITH GOOGLE AI” and “GENOCIDE RUNS ON GOOGLE,” and “FREE FREE PALESTINE,” a press release associated with protest notes. Students also raise Palestinian flags and chant “free Palestine,” an online video of the protests shows.

“We are walking out because we refuse to praise the companies that fuel this violence and use our power of choice in a different way,” said a statement accompanying the protest.

The walkout was organized by a number of campus activist groups, including Stanford Students for Justice in Palestine, No Tech for Apartheid, and Tech for Liberation. TechCrunch has reached out to Google for comment.

As the war in Gaza rages, Google’s involvement in Nimbus has drawn protests both inside and outside the company. In 2024, Google fired 28 workers in protest of the contract, although it has continued to have internal disagreements over the issue since then. It was also recently criticized by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which accused it and other companies of “choosing to look the other way” on Israel’s use of their services.

Project Nimbus also enjoys support from Amazon. Microsoft has also been criticized for its support of the Israeli military, although the company restricted the Israeli government from using its technology after an investigation found that its cloud services were being used to spy on many Palestinians.

The student protest also drew criticism from business leaders online. Vinod Khosla, the billionaire founder of Sun Microsystems and one of Silicon Valley’s most prominent venture capitalists, wrote in X that the protest was “biased, stupid, short-sighted and very selfish,” adding that it was selfish because the students “ignored the three billion humble people on this planet who could benefit from their AI and were concerned with their own interests.”

Pichai’s appearance at Stanford is part of a broader pattern. Speakers at college graduation ceremonies across the country have faced pressure when trying to get outgoing college students excited about AI. But it’s rare that student animus is directed the way it was directed at Photosi, not directed at AI hype, but at specific business decisions made by the company it leads. In general, young people seem to believe that AI threatens their employment prospects and may even damage other parts of society.