Sundar Pichai faces boos, walkout at Stanford graduation ceremony over Google’s Israel, ICE ties

About 200 Stanford graduates reportedly walked out and others booed during Google CEO Sundar Pichai’s commencement speech, protesting the company’s defense and government work. Activists focused on Project Nimbus, Google and Amazon’s $1.2 billion cloud and AI contract with Israel, as well as Google’s relationship with ICE.

The protest shows how campus and employee activism around tech firms’ military and government contracts is becoming harder for executives to avoid in public forums. It also highlights growing scrutiny of AI infrastructure providers whose tools may be used in warfare, surveillance, or immigration enforcement.