The Hidden Ties Between Google and Amazon’s Project Nimbus and Israel's Military

On April 16, constabulary entered Google offices successful New York and California to detain respective employees protesting a $1.2 cardinal unreality declaration with Israel’s authorities called Project Nimbus. The deal, shared with Amazon, has met pushback from immoderate employees astatine some companies since 2021, but the protests person grown louder since Israel’s renewed struggle with Hamas aft the attacks of October 7, 2023.

Current and erstwhile Google and Amazon workers protesting Project Nimbus accidental it makes the companies complicit successful Israel’s equipped conflicts and its government’s amerciable and inhumane attraction of civilian Palestinians. Google has insisted that it is not aimed astatine subject enactment and is not "relevant to weapons oregon quality services,” portion Amazon, seemingly, has not publically discussed the scope of the contract.

But a WIRED reappraisal of nationalist documents and statements by Israeli officials and Google and Amazon employees shows that the Israel Defense Forces person been cardinal to Project Nimbus since its inception, shaping the project’s plan and serving arsenic immoderate of its astir important users. Top Israeli officials look to deliberation the Google and Amazon declaration provides important infrastructure for the country’s military.

In February, astatine a conference dedicated to Project Nimbus, the caput of Israel’s National Cyber Directorate, Gaby Portnoy, was quoted by Israeli media arsenic crediting the declaration with helping the country’s subject retaliation against Hamas.

“Phenomenal things are happening successful conflict due to the fact that of the Nimbus nationalist cloud, things that are impactful for victory,” Portnoy said, according to an nonfiction published successful People & Computers, which coorganized the conference. “And I volition not stock details.” Portnoy and the Cyber Directorate did not respond for comment.

Portnoy’s connection contradicts Google’s statements to media, which person sought to downplay the subject connections of Project Nimbus. “This enactment is not directed astatine highly sensitive, classified, oregon subject workloads applicable to weapons oregon quality services,” Google spokesperson Anna Kowalczyk said successful an emailed statement. “The Nimbus declaration is for workloads moving connected our commercialized unreality by Israeli authorities ministries, who hold to comply with our Terms of Service and Acceptable Use Policy.”

Google’s presumption forbid customers from “high hazard activities,” defined to see situations wherever “use oregon nonaccomplishment of the Services would reasonably beryllium expected to pb to death, idiosyncratic injury, oregon biology oregon spot harm (such arsenic the instauration oregon cognition of atomic facilities, aerial postulation control, beingness enactment systems, oregon weaponry).” It is unclear however supporting IDF combat operations would acceptable wrong those rules.

Portnoy’s assertion and different documents and statements reviewed by WIRED adhd to caller reporting that appears to corroborate the Nimbus contract’s long-established subject connections. Time quoted an interior Google papers that said the Israeli Ministry of Defense has its ain “landing zone” into the company’s Project Nimbus infrastructure. The Intercept reported that 2 state-owned Israeli arms companies are required to usage Google and Amazon unreality services done Project Nimbus.

In effect to a elaborate database of questions from WIRED, Google spokesperson Anna Kowalczyk repeated the company’s boilerplate statement.