Students Walk Out of Google CEO Sundar Pichai's Stanford Commencement Speech

Around 200 students walked out of the CEO of Google’s commencement speech at Stanford University, according to reports.

Other attendees could be seen blowing whistles and waving Palestinian flags, amid Project Nimbus, a scheme under which Google and Amazon provide the Israeli government with technological services.

In footage obtained by an SFGATE reporter, students can be heard chanting “free, free Palestine,” as they left CEO Sundar Pichai’s speech.

“I must warn you all, this is only the second commencement speech I have ever given,” Pichai says in the video. “The first was literally in my backyard.”

According to that same reporter, Pichai did not mention artificial intelligence in his speech. The topic had been mentioned in several commencement speeches by speakers throughout the year, leading to viral moments in which they were booed by the crowd.

Speaking previously The New York Times’s show Hard Fork, Pichai was asked about what he would do if he were booed during his speech.

“Anytime we have driven technology progress, I think it helps drives progress in the world,” he replied. “In some ways, these graduates are actually, both, going to be a big part of driving that progress and also dealing with the impact of technologies.

“I think we have to be very mindful of that and always be extraordinarily optimistic about the next generation,” he continued.

Pichai added that the next generation will “rise to the challenge” and that he would share his own experiences with young people.

Students who walked out of Pichai’s speech held their own “People’s Commencement,” featuring activist Mahmoud Khalil as the keynote speaker, according to SFGATE.

Khalil had been detained for more than 100 days by Immigration and Customs Enforcement over his pro-Palestinian activism on Columbia University’s campus in 2024.

According to Al Jazeera, the $1.2 billion Project Nimbus was signed between Google, Amazon and Israel in 2021. It aims to provide cloud computing infrastructure, A.I. and other technological services to the Israeli government and military.

In a statement obtained by the news organization in 2024, Pichai said that Google had a “culture of vibrant, open discussion.”

However, he added that the company was not a place to “fight over disruptive issues or debate politics,” in response to internal backlash over the project.

“This is too important a moment as a company for us to be distracted,” he continued.

The Independent has contacted Google and Stanford University for comment.