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Several students astatine Stanford University, voicing their enactment for Palestine, staged a walkout during Google CEO Sundar Pichai’s keynote commencement code astatine the institution.
Mr. Pichai, who had received a Master of Science (MS) successful Materials Science and Engineering from Stanford University, returned to his alma mater connected Sunday (June 14, 2026) to present the commencement code to the people of 2026.
A study successful the Stanford Report said that implicit 20,000 people, including 3,600 students, attended Stanford’s 135th Commencement ceremony.
Another study successful SFGate said that astir 200 students walked retired arsenic Pichai addressed the students, faculty, parents and different attendees astatine the commencement ceremony.
The SFGate study further said that respective tiny groups successful the assemblage “waved banners, blew whistles and waved Palestinian flags earlier besides leaving mid-speech.
“Pro-Palestinian protesters condemned the company’s ties with the Israeli government, peculiarly its arguable $1.2 cardinal cloud-computing woody with the state successful 2021, known arsenic Project Nimbus. The walkouts travel different Stanford commencements implicit the past 3 years wherever students person demonstrated successful effect to Israel’s warfare successful Gaza and the university’s crackdown connected pro-Palestinian demonstrations connected campus,” the SFGate study said.
Video from the commencement ceremonial connected societal media showed students walking retired of the event, carrying Palestinian flags and banners, and shouting slogans similar ‘Free Palestine’, arsenic Pichai spoke. Reports said the protestation was organised by groups including 'Students for Justice successful Palestine' and ‘No Tech for Apartheid.’
In his address, Mr. Pichai, an IIT Kharagpur and Wharton alumnus, spoke astir his travel from Chennai to California and the beingness lessons helium learned on the way.
"It’s casual to look astatine the quality of the time and deliberation that we’re surviving successful uniquely challenging times. For me, it’s adjuvant to retrieve that each procreation has faced hardship successful its ain way. We don’t get to take the satellite we postgraduate into, but we bash get to take however we framework our circumstances,” Mr. Pichai said.
“This was thing my parents instilled successful maine astatine a young age. I grew up successful the vibrant metropolis of Chennai, India. It was a comfy beingness for the astir part, but successful those aboriginal years, we had immoderate challenges. We disquieted astir terrible drought and whether the h2o trucks would get successful time. And for us, exertion came slowly. We had to hold years to get a telephone, a TV, and a refrigerator. Each changed our lives successful meaningful ways,” helium said.
Mr. Pichai recalled that his parents ne'er fto the constraints bounds his imaginativeness of what was possible; “it’s the crushed I adjacent fto myself imagination I could 1 time enactment successful a far-away spot called Silicon Valley. When the telephone from Stanford came, my begetter spent the equivalent of a year’s wage to bargain my ticket."
“It was my archetypal clip connected a plane. When I landed successful California, it wasn’t precisely arsenic I had imagined. I retrieve that archetypal thrust down 280 coming from the airdrome with my big family.”
“...I recovered myself adopting this California optimism. And it helped maine navigate 1 of my bigger pivots during my clip astatine Stanford: I came present afloat intending to get my PhD, and to determination into academics. Life had different plans, and I needed to get a occupation sooner. So I near my doctoral program. Stanford was generous to connection maine the accidental to fulfil the requirements for a master’s,” helium said.
Mr. Pichai spoke astir gravitating towards moving connected hard things. “I’d emotion to archer you I was an contiguous occurrence aft leaving Stanford...I wasn’t. Even a decennary later, I felt similar I wasn’t connected the close path, and it took maine a portion to find my footing.”
Indian-American task capitalist and exertion enforcement Vinod Khosla slammed the students for staging the walkout.
In a station connected X, helium said, “The stupidity of these @Stanford students to instrumentality the top accidental for equality successful humanity ever and to truly escaped humanity and spell locomotion retired connected @google and @sundarpichai that's pioneered that. Biased, idiotic, short-sighted and precise selfish. Selfish due to the fact that they ignored the bottommost 3 cardinal radical connected this planet, vs the fewer cardinal Palestinians, whom I besides support. Get real!”
Responding to Mr. Khosla’s post, Indian-American lawmaker Ro Khanna said, “Vinod, my knowing is these students walked retired to protestation Google's declaration with IDF, fixed Israel's genocide successful Gaza. Wherever 1 stands connected those contracts, I judge you would enactment their close of escaped look and challenging authority.”
