Around 200 Stanford students walked out of Sundar Pichai's address to protest Google's cloud contract with Israel.
Pichai continued his speech, sharing lessons from his personal journey from Chennai to Silicon Valley.
The protest sparked a sharp debate on X between tech executive Vinod Khosla and lawmaker Ro Khanna.
About 200 pro-Palestinian student protesters staged a walkout during Google CEO Sundar Pichai’s keynote address at Stanford University’s 135th Commencement ceremony on Sunday. The demonstration focused on the technology giant's financial and technological ties with the Israeli government.
The walkout at the ceremony, which was attended by over 20,000 people including 3,600 graduates, highlights the ongoing tension on American campuses regarding the conflict in Gaza. Organised by groups such as 'Students for Justice in Palestine' and ‘No Tech for Apartheid,’ the protest specifically targeted Project Nimbus, a USD 1.2 billion cloud-computing contract signed between Google and Israel in 2021. According to PTI, several small groups in the audience blew whistles, waved Palestinian flags, and chanted "Free Palestine" before exiting mid-speech. This demonstration follows three years of similar protests at Stanford targeting both the war in Gaza and the university’s responses to campus activism.
Amidst the disruptions, Pichai, an alumnus of IIT Kharagpur, Stanford, and Wharton, focused his address on his personal trajectory from Chennai to Silicon Valley. He had previously earned a Master of Science (MS) in Materials Science and Engineering from Stanford.
"It’s easy to look at the news of the day and think that we’re living in uniquely challenging times. For me, it’s helpful to remember that each generation has faced hardship in its own way. We don’t get to choose the world we graduate into, but we do get to choose how we frame our circumstances,” Pichai said.
He recalled his childhood in India, noting that his family had to wait years for basic amenities like a telephone, television, and refrigerator while dealing with severe droughts. PTI reported that Pichai credited his parents with fostering his ambition, noting that his father spent a year's salary to purchase his initial plane ticket to California.
Reflecting on his time at the university, Pichai explained his shift from academics to the corporate world. “...I found myself adopting this California optimism. And it helped me navigate one of my bigger pivots during my time at Stanford: I came here fully intending to get my PhD, and to move into academics. Life had other plans, and I needed to get a job sooner. So I left my doctoral program. Stanford was generous to offer me the chance to fulfil the requirements for a master’s,” he stated. He added, “I’d love to tell you I was an immediate success after leaving Stanford...I wasn’t. Even a decade later, I felt like I wasn’t on the right path, and it took me a while to find my footing.”
The protest drew sharp criticism from Indian-American venture capitalist and technology executive Vinod Khosla, who condemned the students' actions on social media platform X.
“The stupidity of these @Stanford students to take the greatest opportunity for equality in humanity ever and to really free humanity and go walk out on @google and @sundarpichai that's pioneered that. Biased, idiotic, short-sighted and very selfish. Selfish because they ignored the bottom 3 billion people on this planet, vs the few million Palestinians, whom I also support. Get real!” Khosla wrote.
However, Indian-American lawmaker Ro Khanna defended the students' right to protest in a direct response to Khosla. “Vinod, my understanding is these students walked out to protest Google's contract with IDF, given Israel's genocide in Gaza. Wherever one stands on those contracts, I believe you would support their right of free expression and challenging authority,” Khanna stated, as reported by PTI.
(With inputs from PTI)
