Stanford grads booed Google CEO Sundar Pichai’s commencement speech—but not for the reason you think

At graduation ceremonies in 2026, the mere mention of artificial intelligence is enough to garner boos from the crowd. It happened at the University of Central Florida, where speaker Gloria Caulfield said the “rise of artificial intelligence is the next industrial revolution.” It happened at Middle Tennessee State University, where Big Machine Records CEO Scott Borchetta claimed “AI is rewriting production as we sit here.” And it happened at the University of Arizona, where former Google CEO Eric Schmidt said that AI “will touch every profession, every classroom, every hospital, every laboratory, every person, and every relationship you have.” One might think the trend continued when current Google CEO Sundar Pichai’s speech at Stanford University was met with boos and even a walkout—but despite Pichai helming one of the foremost companies in the AI industry, Stanford’s graduates had an entirely different reason for protesting his speech. During his commencement speech on Sunday, June 14, Pichai never brought up AI, instead focusing on his life story, experience as an immigrant, and career at Google. Still, around 200 graduates booed and walked out during Pichai’s speech, chanting “free, free Palestine” and sporting protest signs. Stanford grads walk out as Google CEO Sundar Pichai takes the stage as commencement speaker. No mention of AI, unlike other uni speakers getting booed down this year. Story for @sfgate shortly pic.twitter.com/qvS2rJ91Ip— Matt Brown (@maattttbrown) June 14, 2026 Google’s deal with Israel The pro-Palestine demonstration at Stanford comes amid Google’s ongoing “Project Nimbus” deal with Israel. In 2021, Google and Amazon signed a $1.2 billion contract to provide the Israeli government and military with cloud computing infrastructure and AI among other technological services. As Israel’s war on Gaza garnered heightened attention in 2024, controversy around Project Nimbus reached a fever pitch. Google employees protested the company’s tie