Microsoft fires employee who disrupted CEO Satya Nadella’s speech

May 23, 2025 11:33 AM IST

Earlier, Microsoft fired Indian-American Microsoft engineer Vaniya Agrawal in April for confronting Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates.

Microsoft has fired the employee who interrupted a speech by CEO Satya Nadella at the annual Build developer conference in Seattle. Software engineer Joe Lopez shouted during the event to protest against the company supplying technology to the Israeli military for its war in Gaza.

A demonstrator is removed from the audience as they interrupt a presentation by Microsoft chairman and CEO Satya Nadella at the Microsoft Build 2025 conference in Seattle, Washington on May 19, 2025. (AFP)

In the opening minutes of the annual conference, Joe can be heard shouting “Satya, how about you show how Microsoft is killing Palestinians. How about you show how Israeli war crimes are powered by Azure?” at Nadella, after which he was escorted out of the room.

Lopez later sent a mass email to colleagues disputing the company’s claims about how its Azure cloud computing platform is used in Gaza. Lopez’s outburst was the first of several other pro-Palestinian disruptions at the event. At least three talks by executives were disrupted and the company had to briefly cut the audio of one of the live streamed event. Protesters were gathered outside the Seattle Convention Centre, that draws thousands of software developers every year.

Microsoft confirmed AI provided to Israeli, denied harming Gaza

Last week, Microsoft acknowledged that it provided AI services to Israeli military for the war in Gaza but added that it found no evidence that its Azure platform and other AI technologies were being used to harm the people of Gaza.

No Azure for Aparthied, an advocacy group led by the employees and ex-employees of Microsoft received a termination letter after Lopez’s protest but couldn’t open it. The group also says that the company has blocked internal emails that mention words including “Palestine” and “Gaza.”

After the protest Lopez also sent a letter stating that his disruption stemmed from his refusal to stay silent as Microsoft continues to facilitate ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people.”

Previously, Microsoft fired Indian-American Microsoft engineer Vaniya Agrawal in April for confronting Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and former CEO Steve Ballmer on its 50th anniversary party.

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