A group of nearly 200 pro-Palestinian students staged a walkout during Google CEO Sundar Pichai’s keynote speech at Stanford University’s 135th Commencement ceremony on Sunday, drawing attention to the tech company’s links with the Israeli government through major technology contracts.
The protest unfolded before an audience of more than 20,000 people, including approximately 3,600 graduating students. Organised by campus groups including Students for Justice in Palestine and No Tech for Apartheid, the demonstration centred on opposition to Project Nimbus, a USD 1.2 billion cloud-computing agreement signed by Google and the Israeli government in 2021.
According to PTI, protesters blew whistles, displayed Palestinian flags and chanted “Free Palestine” before leaving the venue while Pichai was speaking. The action marked the latest in a series of protests held at Stanford over the past three years concerning the Gaza conflict and the university’s handling of related campus activism.
Despite the interruption, Pichai used his commencement address to reflect on his journey from Chennai to Silicon Valley and the lessons he learned along the way. The Google chief, who studied at IIT Kharagpur before earning a Master of Science in Materials Science and Engineering from Stanford, encouraged graduates to maintain perspective when facing uncertainty.
“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.
The technology executive also recounted his upbringing in India, describing a childhood during which his family waited years for household amenities such as a telephone, television and refrigerator, while also enduring severe drought conditions. PTI reported that he credited his parents for nurturing his ambitions, noting that his father spent a year’s salary to fund his first flight to California.
Reflecting on his academic years at Stanford, Pichai spoke about abandoning plans for a doctoral degree and unexpectedly moving into the corporate sector.
“…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 continued, “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 student protest later sparked debate online, with Indian-American venture capitalist and technology executive Vinod Khosla sharply criticising the demonstrators 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.
In contrast, Indian-American Congressman Ro Khanna defended the students’ right to express their views. Responding directly to Khosla, Khanna argued that peaceful protest remains a fundamental democratic principle, regardless of differing opinions on the issue.
“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.
