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.

Microsoft's Build 2025 was disrupted by protests against its contracts with the Israeli government, led by an employee accusing the company of complicity in war crimes. The protest, part of a series organized by 'No Azure for Apartheid,