Stanford Graduates Walk Out as Google CEO Pichai Opens 2026 Commencement Speech

Stanford graduates walked out of Stanford Stadium on June 14 as Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai began the university’s 2026 commencement address, protesting Google’s contract with the Israeli government. The protest targeted Project Nimbus, a roughly $1.2 billion deal to provide cloud and AI services to Israeli government agencies, according to BeInCrypto, and Pichai largely avoided discussing artificial intelligence in his remarks. Israel’s Finance Ministry announced the agreement in April 2021 for an initial seven-year term covering government, defense and security users.