Explained | What is Project Nimbus and why are Google employees protesting against it?

The execution of Project Nimbus will allow Israel to perform large-scale data analysis, AI training, database hosting, and other forms of powerful computing using Google’s technology as per media reports.

Google has fired around 50 employees so far after some of its staff participated in protests against the company's cloud contract with the Israeli government called Project Nimbus.

What is project Nimbus

Project Nimbus is a $1.2 billion contract awarded to Google and Amazon.com in 2021 to supply the Israeli government with cloud services. The aim of the project is to provide Israel with public cloud services in order to address challenges in various sectors of the country like healthcare, transportation, and education.

The execution of this project will allow Israel to perform large-scale data analysis, AI training, database hosting, and other forms of powerful computing using Google’s technology as per a report in Business Today.

Meanwhile, the government employees and senior leaders of the country will also get training to enhance their digital skill.

Why are Google employees in the US protesting?

Google employees organised sit-ins at the Google office in New York City, California and Seattle against the company's contract with the Israeli government.

The protests are being led by No Tech For Apartheid which has been organising demonstrations against Project Nimbus since 2021. The employees in Google are opposing the ties of their employer with Israel which is currently in war with Gaza.

The protesting faction says that Project Nimbus supports the development of military tools by the Israeli government.

In a statement on Medium, Google workers affiliated with the No Tech for Apartheid campaign called it a "flagrant act of retaliation" and said that some employees who did not directly participate in the protests were also among those Google fired.

"Google workers have the right to peacefully protest about terms and conditions of our labor," the statement added.

The protesting faction says that Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion contract awarded to Google and Amazon.com in 2021 to supply the Israeli government with cloud services, supports the development of military tools by the Israeli government.

How has Google reacted?

Google CEO Sundar Pichai issued a public warning against those protesting in the company and urged employees not to indulge in any politics.

“We have a culture of vibrant, open discussion that enables us to create amazing products and turn great ideas into action. That’s important to preserve. But ultimately we are a workplace and our policies and expectations are clear: this is a business, and not a place to act in a way that disrupts coworkers or makes them feel unsafe, to attempt to use the company as a personal platform, or to fight over disruptive issues or debate politics. This is too important a moment as a company for us to be distracted,” he wrote in his blog.

In its statement, Google maintained that the Nimbus contract "is not directed at highly sensitive, classified, or military workloads relevant to weapons or intelligence services."

(With Reuters inputs)