Stanford graduates walk out during Sundar Pichai speech over Palestine protest

What should have been a celebratory moment for Sundar Pichai, Google’s CEO and a Stanford alumnus, turned into one of the most striking scenes of the U.S. graduation season. During Stanford University’s degree ceremony, an event that is one of the academic calendar’s biggest occasions, dozens and possibly hundreds of students staged a public protest against Google and its ties to Israel and the U.S. government.

The protest began almost immediately after Pichai started speaking. According to reports, about a minute into his address to thousands of attendees, large groups of graduates stood up and walked toward the exits. As they left, they waved Palestinian flags, held signs, and chanted “Free Free Palestine,” creating an unusual scene at a ceremony meant to celebrate the new class of graduates.

Before the disruption, Pichai had tried to begin on a personal and light note. He recalled the COVID period, when he had to speak remotely from home and even joked about cutting his own hair. He also made a joke about artificial intelligence, saying people thought AI would be hard for him to handle, but that it was only the last two letters of his surname. He did not directly address the protest.

American media said the demonstration was organized by familiar campus activist groups, including Students for Justice in Palestine and No Tech for Apartheid. The latter has campaigned against major tech companies, especially Google and Microsoft, demanding that they end government and defense contracts that activists say support surveillance and military uses of technology. Some signs also referred to Google’s cooperation with U.S. immigration authorities. The protesters argued that Google’s AI and cloud tools are used by government bodies for monitoring and surveillance.

The Stanford protest reflects a broader shift on U.S. campuses, where tech executives and AI leaders now face more criticism from students. Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt was recently booed at the University of Arizona over fears about AI’s impact on jobs. At Stanford, an institution closely tied to Silicon Valley, the scene underscored how complicated the relationship has become between the new student generation and Big Tech.