Hundreds of Pro-Palestine students walked out of Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai’s commencement speech at Stanford University in California.
Google has backed Israel’s AI-powered genocide of Palestinians through Project Nimbus — a $1.2 billion contract to provide cloud computing services for the Israeli government and defence establishment.
Journalist Erin Woo said that the students were heard booing, chanting “Free, free Palestine” and “shame on you” as they walked out.
Well over 100 Stanford students walked out of Google CEO Sundar Pichai’s commencement speech at Stanford just now, chanting “Free, free Palestine.” Google has a cloud contract with the Israeli government. Lots of boos and cries of “shame on you” as well pic.twitter.com/2dIqs1SBvi
— Erin Woo (@erinkwoo) June 14, 2026
Students were carrying anti-Google banners like –
Genocide runs on Google
and
ICE spies with Google
Likely that the tech-overlord was embarrassed as he refused to acknowledge Lily Jamali, a BBC journalist who asked for his reaction to the walkout.
WATCH: We asked Google CEO Sundar Pichai for his reaction to 100+ Stanford grads walking out of his speech today. @BBCWorld pic.twitter.com/MqJOO9faWn
— Lily Jamali (@lilyjamali) June 14, 2026
Graduates choosing conscience over Google
Grassroots group Stanford Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) praised graduates who walked out of the ceremony rather than listen to Pichai’s speech. They said these graduates chose conscience over comfort.
It said regarding their action and Google:
Today, Sundar Pichai was met with the sight of hundreds of students who showed they could not be allured anymore with the talk of a dollar or rapidly expanding AI. We know about the crimes of Google in collaborating with Israel, ICE, and companies like Palantir.
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A post shared by Stanford Students for Justice in Palestine (@stanfordsjp)
SJP ran a parallel Stanford People’s Commencement with speakers Mahmoud Khalil and Dr. Mohammad Subeh.
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Dr. Subeh, a Palestinian American emergency room doctor who has previously graduated from Stanford, said:
It’s a shame that Stanford invited the CEO of Google to give the main commencement address to the 2026 graduating class, at a time when Google is actively partaking in the genocide and upholding of apartheid in Palestine. Proud of all the students that walked out in an act of defiance and then joined the People’s Commencement. As Mahmoud mentioned in his speech, “when the moment comes to choose between comfort and conscience, choose conscience.”
Students with conscience were the heroes of the day. As for Pichai and Google? Embarrassed into silence.
Featured image via the Canary
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