Stanford students walk out on Google CEO Sundar Pichai over Project Nimbus, ICE ties

Google CEO Sundar Pichai faced a targeted protest during his commencement speech at Stanford University, where he earned his graduate degree. Approximately 200 graduating students walked out, accompanied by loud boos, waving Palestinian flags, and chanting “free Palestine.” The demonstration focused on Google’s defense contracts—particularly Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion cloud and AI services deal shared with Amazon for the Israeli military—and its work with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Student signs read “ICE SPIES WITH GOOGLE AI” and “GENOCIDE RUNS ON GOOGLE.” The walkout was organized by Stanford Students for Justice in Palestine, No Tech for Apartheid, and Tech for Liberation. A statement from protesters said, “We refuse to glorify the corporations that fuel this violence.”

The protest is the latest in a series of internal and external clashes over Project Nimbus. In 2024, Google fired 28 employees for protesting the contract, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation recently criticized Google for “choosing to look the other way” on how Israel uses its services. (Amazon and Microsoft have also faced scrutiny for similar ties.) Business leaders pushed back: Vinod Khosla, co-founder of Sun Microsystems, called the protest “biased, idiotic, short-sighted and very selfish,” claiming students ignored the global poor who could benefit from AI. The incident reflects a broader trend of student pushback against Big Tech and its military applications, as young people increasingly view AI as a threat to jobs and society.