Overview
- A planned walkout organized by Stanford Students for Justice in Palestine and allied groups saw roughly 100–200 graduates leave Sundar Pichai’s keynote on Sunday, June 14, chanting “Free, free Palestine.”
- Protesters targeted Project Nimbus, a reported $1.2 billion cloud and AI services deal involving Google and Amazon and the Israeli government, which critics say risks enabling surveillance and military uses.
- Pichai completed his speech without addressing the protest or discussing artificial intelligence and declined to comment when approached after the ceremony.
- Many participants held a parallel “People’s Commencement” that featured activist Mahmoud Khalil, while Stanford has not announced any disciplinary actions related to the walkout.
- The walkout continues a multi-year pattern of campus activism and employee dissent over tech firms’ government contracts and suggests that high-profile tech leaders will face growing scrutiny at public university events.