Microsoft Build 2025, Microsoft’s biggest developer event of 2025, hit by Pro-Palestine protest; CEO Satya Nadella’s keynote speech disrupted

A Microsoft employee disrupted the company’s annual developer conference, Build 2025, in Seattle on May 19. The employee protested against the company’s Cloud and AI work with the Israeli government. According to The Verge, the protest happened minutes after Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella started his keynote speech for the Microsoft Build 2025 conference, when one of the protesters shouted ‘free Palestine’.

The Microsoft employee, identified as Joe Lopez, is a firmware engineer who has worked at Microsoft for four years on the Azure hardware systems team. He was joined by a former Google employee who was fired after participating in similar protests last year against Google’s cloud deal with Israel.