A Microsoft employee publicly disrupted CEO Satya Nadella’s keynote address this week to protest the company’s ties to Israel’s military operations in Gaza, accusing Microsoft of complicity in war crimes.

Joe Lopez, a firmware engineer on the Azure hardware systems team and a member of the internal activist group No Azure for Apartheid, stood up during Nadella’s speech and shouted: “Satya! How about you show how Microsoft is killing Palestinians? How about you show the Israeli war crimes are powered by Azure?”

Security quickly intervened and escorted Lopez out of the venue. The interruption has sparked widespread internal and public attention, as criticism mounts over the role of major tech companies in supporting military technologies used in conflict zones.

"As a Microsoft worker, I refuse to be complicit in this genocide", said Lopez.

Following the protest, Lopez sent a company-wide email explaining his actions and calling on Microsoft leadership to take a moral stand.

“As one of the largest companies in the world, Microsoft has immeasurable power to do the right thing: demand an end to this senseless tragedy, or we will cease our technological support for Israel,” the email read.

“If leadership continues to ignore this demand, I promise that it won’t go unnoticed. The world has already woken up to our complicity and is turning against us. The boycotts will increase and our image will continue to spiral into disrepair.”

The full email was later published on Medium, prompting renewed debate both inside and outside Microsoft about corporate responsibility and the ethical implications of cloud computing partnerships with the Israeli military.

Microsoft has yet to publicly respond to the protest or the growing internal movement calling for a reassessment of its contracts with the Israeli government and military.

The No Azure for Apartheid campaign is part of a broader wave of tech worker activism, with employees across the industry increasingly speaking out against the use of advanced technologies in warfare and surveillance.

The Israeli army has pursued a brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip since a Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023, killing more than 53,000 Palestinians so far, most of them women and children.