Microsoft employee Joe Lopez, who has spent the past four years working as a firmware engineer in the company’s Azure hardware systems team, was one of the protesters who interrupted Nadella. He was also joined by a fired Google employee,

The protest was part of a larger campaign by a group called "No Azure for Apartheid," which includes current and former Microsoft workers.

A Microsoft employee disrupted Satya Nadella’s Build 2025 keynote by protesting the company’s cloud contracts with Israel, accusing Azure of aiding military actions in Gaza.