New York, 15 June

Several students at Stanford University, voicing their support for Palestine, staged a walkout during Google CEO Sundar Pichai’s keynote commencement address at the institution.

Pichai, who had received a Master of Science (MS) in Materials Science and Engineering from Stanford University, returned to his alma mater on Sunday to deliver the commencement address to the class of 2026.

A report in the Stanford Report said that over 20,000 people, including 3,600 students, attended Stanford’s 135th Commencement ceremony.

Another report in SFGate said that about 200 students walked out as Pichai addressed the students, faculty, parents and other attendees at the commencement ceremony.

The SFGate report further said that several small groups in the audience “waved banners, blew whistles and waved Palestinian flags before also leaving mid-speech.

“Pro-Palestinian protesters condemned the company’s ties with the Israeli government, particularly its controversial USD 1.2 billion cloud-computing deal with the country in 2021, known as Project Nimbus. The walkouts follow other Stanford commencements over the last three years where students have demonstrated in response to Israel’s war in Gaza and the university’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian demonstrations on campus,” the SFGate report said.

Video from the commencement ceremony on social media showed students walking out of the event, carrying Palestinian flags and banners, and shouting slogans like ‘Free Palestine’, as Pichai spoke. Reports said the protest was organised by groups including 'Students for Justice in Palestine' and ‘No Tech for Apartheid.’

In his address, Pichai, an IIT Kharagpur and Wharton alumnus, spoke about his journey from Chennai to California and the life lessons he learned along the way.

"It’s easy to look at the news of the day and think that we’re living in uniquely challenging times. For me, it’s helpful to remember that each generation has faced hardship in its own way. We don’t get to choose the world we graduate into, but we do get to choose how we frame our circumstances,” Pichai said.

“This was something my parents instilled in me at a young age. I grew up in the vibrant city of Chennai, India. It was a comfortable life for the most part, but in those early years, we had some challenges. We worried about severe drought and whether the water trucks would arrive in time. And for us, technology came slowly. We had to wait years to get a telephone, a TV, and a refrigerator. Each changed our lives in meaningful ways,” he said.

Pichaire called that his parents never let the constraints limit his imagination of what was possible; “it’s the reason I even let myself dream I could one day work in a far-away place called Silicon Valley. When the call from Stanford came, my father spent the equivalent of a year’s salary to buy my ticket."

It was my first time on a plane. When I landed in California, it wasn’t exactly as I had imagined. I remember that first drive down 280 coming from the airport with my host family.”

“...I found myself adopting this California optimism. And it helped me navigate one of my bigger pivots during my time at Stanford: I came here fully intending to get my PhD, and to move into academics. Life had other plans, and I needed to get a job sooner. So I left my doctoral program. Stanford was generous to offer me the chance to fulfil the requirements for a master’s,” he said.

Pichai spoke about gravitating towards working on hard things. “I’d love to tell you I was an immediate success after leaving Stanford...I wasn’t. Even a decade later, I felt like I wasn’t on the right path, and it took me a while to find my footing.”

Indian-American venture capitalist and technology executive Vinod Khosla slammed the students for staging the walkout.

In a post on X, he said, “The stupidity of these @Stanford students to take the greatest opportunity for equality in humanity ever and to really free humanity and go walk out on @google and @sundarpichai that's pioneered that. Biased, idiotic, short-sighted and very selfish. Selfish because they ignored the bottom 3 billion people on this planet, vs the few million Palestinians, whom I also support. Get real!”

Responding to Khosla’s post, Indian-American lawmaker Ro Khanna said, “Vinod, my understanding is these students walked out to protest Google's contract with IDF, given Israel's genocide in Gaza. Wherever one stands on those contracts, I believe you would support their right of free expression and challenging authority.”