Project Nimbus protests: 10 pointers on the Google-Amazon-Israel contract that led to arrests

Nine Google employees were arrested on Tuesday evening after they staged a protest against Project Nimbus in New York and California. (Image credit: @NoTechApartheid/X)

A revolt that has been simmering inside Google and Amazon offices in the US after the tech giants signed a contract with Israel in 2021 found an outlet recently after Israel invaded Gaza and found military support from the US.

Nine Google employees were arrested on Tuesday evening at the company’s offices in New York and California they staged sit-ins to protest the tech giant’s work with the Israeli government over Project Nimbus.

Here are 10 things to know about it:

1.) Project Nimbus is a controversial $1.2 billion cloud computing and AI (artificial intelligence) agreement between Israel and two tech companies: Google and Amazon.

2.) According to a report by TIME, the Israeli media have previously indicated that Google and Amazon are by contract barred from preventing specific arms of the Israeli government from using their technology under Project Nimbus. This, however, is the first time that the existence of a contract showing that the Israeli Ministry of Defense is a Google Cloud customer has been revealed.

3.) As per the contract, the Israeli Ministry of Defense has its own “landing zone” into Google Cloud which would allow the ministry to store and process data, and access AI services safely, TIME reported quoting a Google document it has access to.

4.) The draft contract dated March 27, 2024, also showed that the Israeli ministry sought consulting assistance from Google to expand its Google Cloud access, seeking to allow “multiple units” to access automation technologies.

5.) It also showed Google billing the Israeli Ministry of Defense more than $1 million for the consulting service.

6.) Google also gave the ministry a 15 percent discount on the original price of consulting fees as a result of the “Nimbus framework,” TIME reported.

7.) As per the document, Google will “assist with architecture design, implementation guidance, and automation” for the Israeli Ministry of Defense’s Google Cloud landing zone.

BREAKING—DOZENS OF @GOOGLE WORKERS LEAD HISTORIC COAST TO COAST-INS AT @GOOGLECLOUD CEO THOMAS KURIAN’S OFFICE IN SUNNYVALE & @GOOGLE’s NYC 10TH FLOOR COMMONS. They refuse to leave until @google stops powering the genocide in Gaza

LIVESTREAM: https://t.co/uUiPbr3oDz pic.twitter.com/vCkInh0769

— No Tech For Apartheid (@NoTechApartheid) April 16, 2024

8.) Meanwhile, about 90 workers at Google and more than 300 employees at Amazon wrote to The Guardian in 2021 -- when Project Nimbus was finalised -- and shared their fear of the technology allowing Israel to increase "surveillance of and unlawful data collection on Palestinians, and facilitates expansion of Israel’s illegal settlements on Palestinian land."

9.) "We cannot look the other way, as the products we build are used to deny Palestinians their basic rights, force Palestinians out of their homes and attack Palestinians in the Gaza Strip – actions that have prompted war crime investigations by the international criminal court," the letter stated. "We condemn Amazon and Google’s decision to sign the Project Nimbus contract with the Israeli military and government, and ask them to reject this contract and future contracts that will harm our users. We call on global technology workers and the international community to join with us in building a world where technology promotes safety and dignity for all."

10.) Google, on the other hand, described its work for the Israeli government as mostly for civilian purposes. “We have been very clear that the Nimbus contract is for workloads running on our commercial platform by Israeli government ministries such as finance, healthcare, transportation, and education,” a Google spokesperson told TIME. “Our work is not directed at highly sensitive or classified military workloads relevant to weapons or intelligence services.”