STANFORD — Venture capitalist Vinod Khosla posted criticism on the social media platform X regarding student protesters who walked out of Stanford University's 135th commencement ceremony on Sunday. Between 100 and 200 students exited the ceremony, which included nearly 3,600 graduating students and was attended by over 20,000 people.

During their walkout, students carried Palestinian flags, blew whistles, and chanted "Free Palestine." The walkout was organized by Students for Justice in Palestine and No Tech for Apartheid. Khosla stated, "The behavior was biased, idiotic, short-sighted and very selfish."

The venture capitalist further elaborated on his criticism. "They acted selfishly because they ignored the bottom 3 billion people on this planet that could benefit from AI and they are worried about their misinformed selfish self-interest." Khosla said. Protesting student groups released a statement, saying, "We do not need another tech billionaire to tell us how to get rich off of the killing and surveillance of Palestinians."

The student protesters cited Project Nimbus as a grievance, which is a $1.2 billion cloud and AI contract involving Google, Amazon, and the Israeli government. The groups also referenced Google's reported contracts with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement as grievances. Google CEO Sundar Pichai, a Stanford University alumnus, delivered the commencement keynote address.

Pichai continued his speech after the student walkout began. Pichai advised graduates to "Find a way to keep moving forward." When reporters asked him about the walkout after the ceremony, Pichai declined to comment. Khosla, who co-founded Sun Microsystems and founded Khosla Ventures, also studied at Stanford and has donated to the institution. He has previously predicted that AI could automate up to 80 percent of jobs by 2030.