Project Nimbus: Why are Big Tech workers protesting Israel's $1.2B deal?

As the war in Gaza enters its second year, a different kind of battle is escalating in the offices of Silicon Valley's tech giants.

Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion cloud computing contract between Google, Amazon, and the Israeli government, has sparked a wave of employee protests and led to dozens of firings at Google.

The project, first announced in 2021, aims to provide cloud services to various branches of the Israeli government, including its military.

However, tech workers are taking increasingly bold actions to oppose their companies' involvement with the Israeli government, which stands accused at international courts of waging a genocidal war that has killed over 42,010 people in Gaza.

What is Project Nimbus?

Project Nimbus is a joint venture between Google and Amazon Web Services (AWS) to supply the Israeli government with cloud computing infrastructure, artificial intelligence (AI), and other tech services.

When unveiled in April 2021, the Israeli government described it as intended to "provide a comprehensive and thorough response for the provision of cloud services to the government, the defence establishment and other entities."

The scale and scope of the project have led to widespread demonstrations by employees and activists.

Last year, Google and Amazon employees published an open letter in the Guardian, warning that the project "allows for further surveillance of and unlawful data collection on Palestinians, and facilitates expansion of Israel's illegal settlements on Palestinian land."

Google Cloud Platform's AI tools could give the Israeli military and security services the capability for facial detection, automated image categorisation, object tracking & sentiment analysis – tools previously used by US Customs and Border Protection for border surveillance.

Why are workers protesting?

The protests against Project Nimbus stem from employees' objections to their work potentially being used in attacks on Palestinians or surveillance activities in Gaza.

These concerns have intensified since the outbreak of war in October 2023.

Cheyne Anderson, a former Google employee fired for protesting Project Nimbus, said that the company “just dismissed and downplayed concerns throughout the entire time".

The workers were also protesting labour conditions at the company — stating the contract was affecting “health and safety on the job” — and what they said was Google’s disregard “for the well-being of our Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim colleagues facing Google-enabled racism, discrimination, harassment, and censorship.”

Company responses and employee actions

The protests have taken various forms, from internal petitions and discussions to public demonstrations and sit-ins.

Despite employee outcry, Google and Amazon have continued to defend Project Nimbus.

Google has claimed that the contract "is not directed at highly sensitive, classified, or military workloads relevant to weapons or intelligence services."

However, this statement has done little to assuage the concerns of employees who fear their work could be supporting military operations.

After October 7, 2023, Mohammad Khatami, a Muslim, circulated an internal petition to pressure Google to drop Project Nimbus.

He described how the company suppressed internal discussions about the project:

"Google would basically either take down the question, delete the question, or close the email chains associated with any kind of dissent regarding Project Nimbus.”

He was the only person to be called in by the human resources department and reprimanded.

When Israeli bombs killed Palestinian software engineer Mai Ubeid, a former graduate of the Google-funded coding boot camp in Gaza, Googlers organised vigils outside its offices in New York, Seattle and London for him, who was disabled and wheelchair-bound.

In December 2023, 1,700 Amazon employees petitioned CEO Andy Jassy “to rescind all contracts with the Israeli military and call for an immediate, durable, and sustained cease-fire.”

In April 2024, Google fired 50 employees for staging a 10-hour sit-in at one of its American offices to demand that the company drop Project Nimbus.

The mass firings showed a turning point for the company as it grappled with an internal battle among its employees over the war in Gaza.

In three years, the controversy has spread beyond Google and Amazon.

Microsoft employees, for instance, launched a campaign called "No Azure for Apartheid" to pressure their company to stop providing cloud services to Israel in May.

Microsoft did not respond to multiple requests for comment about whether and how its technology was being used in Gaza.

The terms outlined by Israel in the project contract prevent Amazon and Google from suspending services due to boycott pressure, further prohibiting the tech companies from denying service to any specific government entities.