Security officers block entrance doors after pro-Palestinian protesters attempted to enter the Microsoft Build conference at the Seattle Convention Center Arch building in Seattle, Washington on May 19, 2025.
Jason Redmond | Afp | Getty Images
At Microsoft’s annual Build conference on Tuesday, Executive Vice President Jay Parikh’s keynote was interrupted by an employee protesting the company’s contracts with the Israeli government. The protester at the Seattle Convention Center was quickly whisked away by security guards, including some undercover agents dressed like attendees.
More than 800 miles south in Mountain View, California, security guards lined the mainstage of Google I/O, where Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai was set to speak. At the entrance to the developers conference, roughly two dozen black-clad guards rifled through bags, opening up lipstick cases and pulling out items, including women’s feminine products, and confiscating over-the-counter pain medications.
The vibe is different during this year’s tech conference season. Tensions were already elevated after the October 2023 attack by Hamas on Israel and the extended bombing campaign in the Gaza Strip that followed. But they’ve heightened in recent months as artificial intelligence technologies advance at a rapid rate and an AI arms race has entered the most sensitive parts of society.
Additionally, there’s the aftermath of the fatal shooting in December of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in midtown Manhattan as the executive was on way on his way to an investor event.
“We definitely have seen an uptick in the request for security, specifically in the last six to nine months,” said Richard Dossett, client relations manager for American Global Security, which works with tech companies. “There have also been a lot of protests and civil upheaval, especially in Fortune 500 companies, with the landscape at the moment, so they want extra security to make sure they’re not going to be hassled.”
Security firms and industry experts told CNBC that technology companies’ increased work with governments has contributed to an uptick in security needs. AI companies in recent months have been walking back bans on military use of their products and entering into deals with defense industry giants and the Defense Department.
Companies are responding to increased outrage in part by trying to quell internal dissent. Google last year expanded its list of prohibited discussion topics to include international issues, territorial disputes, national policy events and military conflicts.
A demonstrator is removed from the audience as they interrupt a presentation by Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella at the Microsoft Build 2025 conference in Seattle, Washington on May 19, 2025.
Jason Redmond | AFP | Getty Images
For Microsoft, this week’s protests had recent precedent.
In April, former employees interrupted the company’s 50th anniversary celebrations, calling Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman a “war profiteer.” Ibtihal Aboussad, then a software engineer in the company’s AI division, walked toward the stage at the event in Redmond, Washington saying, “You claim that you care for using AI for good, but Microsoft sells AI weapons to the Israeli military.”
Employees at the company had previously formed a group called No Azure for Apartheid, following the creation of similar movements at Google and Amazon directed at opposing work with the Israeli government.
Parikh, who runs the newly created CoreAi group at Microsoft, heard that specific message during his Build speech this week.
“Jay!” yelled the worker from the audience. “How dare you talk about AI when my people are suffering! Cut ties! No Azure for apartheid!
“Satya! How about you show how Microsoft is killing Palestinians?” Lopez screamed. “How about you show the Israeli war crimes are powered by Azure.”
Another employee followed, “As a Microsoft worker, I refuse to be complicit in this genocide. Free Palestine!” That employee was later fired, as was Lopez.
‘Turbulent world’
Kenneth Bombace, CEO of Global Threat Solutions, said tech companies “have had robust security but I would say it has picked up in the last year or so, or even more recently.”
“It’s sort of a turbulent world we live in, politically and otherwise right now,” said Bombace, whose firm provides clients with protection and investigative services.
Following the protests at Build, Microsoft employees reported that emails with the words Gaza, Palestine or genocide wouldn’t send, and expressed concern they were being blocked by the company, according to screenshots, recordings and documents viewed by CNBC.
Microsoft didn’t respond to a request for comment about the heightened security. Regarding the email issue, a Microsoft spokesperson said in a statement that some messages were being “sent to tens of thousands of employees and we have taken measures to try and reduce those emails to those that have not opted in.”
Pro-Palestinian protesters blocked the Google I/O developer conference entrance to protest Google’s Project Nimbus and Israeli attacks on Gaza and Rafah, at its headquarters in Mountain View, California, United States on May 14, 2024.
Tayfun Coskun | Anadolu | Getty Images
Google didn’t provide a comment about its security presence at I/O, but a spokesperson pointed to the list of prohibited items at Shoreline Amphitheater, where the conference took place.
Google had a similar situation at its developer conference last year, when dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters rallied outside with red paint on signs and clothing to signify blood. Banners and signs read “Don’t Be Evil” and “Stop fueling genocide.”
The demonstrators demanded the tech giant withdraw from its Project Nimbus contract, a $1.2 billion deal to provide AI technology to the Israeli government.
“We won’t stop ’til Nimbus is dropped,” protesters chanted.
Bombace said that as tech companies collaborate with governments, they “have to meet certain security standards.”
“We’re providing services right now in response to activity based on the conflict in Gaza,” Bombace said. Social media companies, he said, “have a whole unique footprint of issues because of the nature of their business and the things that are being posted on their platforms.”
Last year, during a keynote speech in New York from a Google executive, an employee in the company’s cloud division protested publicly, proclaiming “I refuse to build technology that powers genocide.” The hired event security forced him out of the building and the company later fired him. Google ended up terminating more than 50 employees after a series of protests against Project Nimbus last year.
Police officers and security guards stand guard at Google’s annual developer conference.
Jennifer Elias
Dossett said he’s also noticed an uptick in protesters trying to gain access to corporate campus buildings to record videos or take pictures to get their messages to the public.
“When people try to invade a company’s space and film it on camera and it goes viral — that’s something other companies see and think ‘we don’t want that to happen to us,'” Dossett said. “It could affect their brand but largely, it’s been about safety of the people.”
At Build, Microsoft’s use of undercover guards plays into a growing trend, experts said.
“They’ll be in the crowd and say ‘we have a suspicious male who’s wearing a white shirt in row three,'” Bombace said. “There’s a lot that goes on that the average person doesn’t recognize and that’s good.”
It’s not just at conferences and on campuses where companies are taking extra measures for protection.
Google lifted Pichai’s security costs by 22% in 2024 to $8.27 million. At least a dozen S&P 500 companies have highlighted increased security costs, Reuters reported last month, based on an analysis of recent disclosures. Bombace said the AI arms race is a big reason for companies to boost spending in that area.
“It’s a race right now and that leads to increased security,” Bombace said. He added that to foreign adversaries, “technology becomes the No. 1 target.”
Tyler Winklevoss and Cameron Winklevoss (L-R), creators of crypto exchange Gemini Trust Co., on stage at the Bitcoin 2021 Convention, a cryptocurrency conference held at the Mana Convention Center in Wynwood in Miami, Florida, on June 4, 2021.
Joe Raedle | Getty Images
Gemini Space Station, the crypto company founded by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, priced its initial public offering at $28 per share late Thursday, according to Bloomberg.
A person familiar with the offering told the news service that the company priced the offering above its expected range of $24 to $26, which would value the company at $3.3 billion.
Since Gemini capped the value of the offering at $425 million, 15.2 million shares were sold, according to the report. That was a measure of high demand for the crypto company, which had initially marketed 16.67 million shares. Earlier this week, it increased its proposed price range from between $17 and $19 apiece.
A Gemini spokesperson could not confirm the report.
The company and the selling stockholders granted its underwriters — led by and Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley — a 30-day option to sell an additional 452,807 and 380,526 shares, respectively, per the registration form. Gemini stock will trade on the Nasdaq under ticker symbol “GEMI.”
Up to 30% of the shares offered will be reserved for retail investors through Robinhood, SoFi, Hong Kong-based Futu Securities, Singapore’s Moomoo Financial, Webull and other platforms.
Gemini, which primarily operates as a cryptocurrency exchange, was founded by the Winklevoss brothers in 2014 and holds more than $21 billion of assets on its platform as of the end of July.
Initial trading will give the market a sense of how long it can keep the crypto IPO party going. Circle Internet and Bullish had successful listings, but there has been a recent consolidation in the prices of blue chip cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and ether. Also, in contrast to those companies’ profitability, Gemini has reported widening losses, especially in 2025. Per its registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Gemini posted a net loss of $159 million in 2024, and in the first half of this year, it lost $283 million.
This week, however, Gemini received a big vote of institutional confidence when Nasdaq said it’s making a strategic investment of $50 million in the crypto company. Nasdaq is seeking to offer its clients access to Gemini’s custodial services, and gain a distribution partner for its trade management system known as Calypso.
Gemini also offers a crypto-backed credit card, and last month, launched another card in partnership with Ripple. The latter garnered more than 30,000 credit card sign-ups in August, a new monthly high that was more than twice the number of credit card sign-ups in the prior month, according to the S-1 filing.
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Microsoft Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella (L), speaks with OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman, who joined by video during the Microsoft Build 2025, conference in Seattle, Washington on May 19, 2025.
Jason Redmond | AFP | Getty Images
OpenAI on Thursday said its nonprofit parent will continue to have oversight over the company and will own an equity stake of more than $100 billion.
The artificial intelligence startup, recently valued at $500 billion, said this structure will make the nonprofit “one of the most well-resourced philanthropic organizations in the world,” and will allow the company to continue to raise capital.
OpenAI also announced it has signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding with Microsoft, which outlines the next phase of their partnership. Microsoft has invested over $13 billion in OpenAI, backing the company as early as 2019, three years before the launch of of the chatbot ChatGPT.
“We are actively working to finalize contractual terms in a definitive agreement,” OpenAI said in a joint statement with Microsoft, which is also the company’s key cloud partner. “Together, we remain focused on delivering the best AI tools for everyone, grounded in our shared commitment to safety.”
In May, OpenAI bowed to pressure from civic leaders and ex-employees, announcing that its nonprofit would retain control even as the company was restructuring into a public benefit corporation. OpenAI was founded as a nonprofit research lab in 2015, but has in recent years become one of the fastest-growing commercial entities on the planet.
OpenAI said Thursday it is working closely with the California and Delaware Attorneys General to establish its structure.
“OpenAI started as a nonprofit, remains one today, and will continue to be one – with the nonprofit holding the authority that guides our future,” the company’s Chairman Bret Taylor said in a statement Thursday.
The startup has been engulfed in a heated legal battle with Elon Musk, one of its co-founders. Musk has been trying to keep OpenAI from converting into a for-profit company as he competes in the generative AI market with his own startup, xAI.
OpenAI said its nonprofit is also opening applications for the first phase of a $50 million grant initiative that is aimed to support other nonprofit and community organizations across AI literacy, economic opportunity and community innovation.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella departs following a meeting of the White House Task Force on AI Education in the East Room of the White House in Washington on Sept. 4, 2025.
Eric Lee | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told employees in a meeting on Thursday that the company has work to do to smooth relations with employees after announcing several rounds of layoffs and a mandated partial return toin-person work.
In the meeting that was held online, an employee asked executives to speak about a perceived lack of empathy in the company’s culture as of late and steps Microsoft is taking to rebuild trust with its workforce.
“I deeply appreciate that, the question and the sentiment behind it,” Nadella said, in audio that was obtained by CNBC. “I take it as feedback for me and everyone in the leadership team, because at the end of the day, I think we can do better, and we will do better.”
Nadella’s comments come after Microsoft slashed 9,000 jobs in July, following smaller reductions in the months prior. On Tuesday, Microsoft said workers living near its headquarters in Redmond, Washington, must come into the office three days a week, starting in February, with a broader rollout to follow.
Amy Coleman, Microsoft’s human resources chief, said at Thursday’s meeting that reception to the return-to-office announcement has been mixed, with some workers feeling like they’re losing autonomy. But she said that employees in and around Seattle already come in, on average, 2.4 times each week.
Like most of the tech industry, Microsoft went fully remote during the pandemic, and made particular use of its internal Teams video and chat offerings, which gained rapid adoption during that period. Microsoft has been slower than many of its peers to put a mandate in place for coming back to the office. Amazon, one of Microsoft’s top rivals, called employees back to offices five days a week in January.
While Nadella and the executive team are taking criticism from some staffers, Wall Street is applauding the company’s growth and execution. The stock is up almost 20% this year, outperforming the broader market, pushing Microsoft’s market cap to $3.7 trillion, which trails only Nvidia among the world’s most-valuable companies.
In July, Microsoft reported a 24% increase in net income to $27 billion. The company’s gross margin was under 69%, compared with 71% in late 2023. It’s rapidly building and renting data center infrastructure to meet artificial intelligence demand.
Nadella said at the meeting that with remote work, new employees and those who are early in their careers don’t always feel a sense of apprenticeship or mentorship.
“Management is just mostly all remote, but the interns are all, you know, in one location,” he said. “And so those are things that just will break a social contract.”
Microsoft didn’t immediately provide a comment.
Even with Microsoft’s rapid expansion, Nadella said the company is feeling the pressure. It’s a common theme in the software industry, as concerns proliferate about the impact of AI and its potential to automate work.
“We have some very, very hard work ahead of us, and that hard process of renewal is essentially what we have to do,” Nadella said. “You have to be hardcore in terms of an intellectual honesty about what really needs to happen.”
Microsoft’s Azure cloud business grew 39% in the latest quarter, but revenue in the Windows and devices business increased by just 2.5%.
“Some of the biggest businesses we built may not be as relevant going forward,” Nadella said. “Some of the margin that we love today may not be there tomorrow, and that means you have to be way ahead of all of those going away, right?”
Microsoft, which celebrated its 50th anniversary in April, will retain its core values as it confronts market realities, Nadella said.
“Capital markets have one simple truth,” he said. “There is no permission for any company to exist forever.”
That wasn’t the only contentious topic at the meeting.
Employees are awaiting details from a third-party investigation after The Guardian said in August that Israel’s military used Microsoft’s Azure cloud infrastructure to store Palestinians’ phone calls as part of Israel’s invasion of Gaza. Microsoft has fired five employees following protests at its headquarters in Redmond, according to a statement from the group No Azure for Apartheid.
Microsoft President Brad Smith, whose office the protesters entered, addressed the issue on Thursday. He said that he and Coleman met with Jewish Microsoft employees, who have been harassed and threatened and have seen their public information shared online.
“We don’t get to control what happens outside Microsoft, but we need to be clear about one thing,” Smith said. “There is no room for antisemitism at Microsoft, and as a company and as a community, we will protect this group and defend them from that.”