Indian-American ex-employee Vaniya Agrawal leads new protest at Microsoft Build

Microsoft

Microsoft’s annual developer conference, Build 2025, has been shaken by a series of back-to-back disruptions from pro-Palestine activists—culminating in a high-profile protest led by former Microsoft engineer Vaniya Agrawal.

Agrawal, who first made headlines in April by interrupting Microsoft’s 50th anniversary celebration, returned to the spotlight this week by disrupting a Build session on AI security. Alongside fellow ex-employee Hossam Nasr, she shouted down Neta Haiby, Microsoft’s Head of Security for AI, and Sarah Bird, its Head of Responsible AI, in protest of the company’s cloud contracts with the Israeli government.

The protest marks the third consecutive day of unrest at Build 2025. On May 19, an employee interrupted CEO Satya Nadella’s keynote by shouting “Free Palestine” and demanding accountability for Microsoft’s tech deals with Israel. The following day, a Palestinian tech worker stormed executive Jay Parikh’s Azure AI presentation, declaring, “Cut ties! No Azure for apartheid!”

Agrawal, a former engineer in the company’s AI division, had previously accused Microsoft leadership—including Bill Gates and Satya Nadella—of complicity in civilian deaths in Gaza, saying “50,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been murdered with Microsoft technology.” She was fired shortly after the April protest without completing her notice period.

She has since become a visible face of tech-sector dissent, sharing ongoing protest imagery from Build 2025 on social media.

Microsoft has not publicly commented on the protests or the employees’ dismissals. However, the repeated disruptions reflect rising internal dissent over Microsoft’s role in supplying cloud infrastructure to the Israeli Ministry of Defense, amid heightened scrutiny over the humanitarian toll of the Gaza conflict.