‘Free Palestine’ chants erupt as students protest during Google CEO Sundar Pichai’s Stanford address

Several videos circulating on social media showed around 100 students leaving their seats at the university stadium while chanting pro-Palestinian slogans.

The protest was reportedly organized by activist groups including Students for Justice in Palestine and No Tech for Apartheid, the New York Post reported.

India-born Pichai is a Stanford alumnus, having earned a master's degree in materials science and engineering from the university in 1995.

He was selected as the keynote speaker for Stanford University's 135th commencement ceremony held on June 14.

The demonstration marks the latest chapter in the ongoing controversy surrounding Google's involvement in Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion cloud computing contract jointly held with Amazon to provide cloud and artificial intelligence services to the Israeli government, according to reports.

Pro-Palestinian activists have argued that the technology could potentially be used by Israel's military and security agencies in ways that harm Palestinians.

Google has consistently defended the project, maintaining that it is intended for government cloud services and does not support military operations.

Reports also noted that Google fired several employees in 2024 following sit-ins and demonstrations at its California and New York offices protesting Project Nimbus and the company's ties to Israel.