Cloud Companies vs. Workers: The Battle Over Digital Warfare

This Deep Dive was originally sent on August 10th, 2025.

Alright, we need to talk about something that’s probably going to make you uncomfortable.

Every time you back up photos to Google Drive, ask ChatGPT a question, or stream something on Amazon Prime, you’re using the exact same infrastructure that’s currently helping to identify bombing targets in Gaza.

I know, I know — that sounds like activist hyperbole. But stick with me here, because we’ve got the receipts. The same servers storing your vacation pics? They’re also storing military surveillance data on Palestinian civilians. 

That AI chatbot helping you write emails? The military version is processing “target banks” for airstrikes. Your favorite cloud storage service? It saw a 64x surge in usage from Israeli military intelligence units during the most intensive bombing campaigns.

This isn’t some conspiracy theory — it’s documented in leaked contracts, internal Microsoft files, and UN reports we’re going to walk through together.

Here’s the thing that makes this story wild: the biggest resistance isn’t coming from activists or politicians. It’s coming from the tech workers themselves.

Engineers and developers who built these systems are getting fired, staging sit-ins, and launching campaigns with names like “No Tech for Apartheid” because they’re saying “wait, this isn’t what I signed up for.”

But let’s back up. How did we get to a point where your Google account and military targeting systems are running on the same infrastructure?

It all started with a $1.2 billion contract called Project Nimbus, and it’s opened up a world where the line between civilian and military technology has completely disappeared. We’re talking about what experts call “dual-use” tech — systems that can seamlessly switch from helping you organize your photos to helping organize bombing campaigns.

Dive in with me as we go over:

• What’s Project Nimbus?
• The Employee Uprising: No Tech for Apartheid
• The Microsoft Connection
• The “Dual-Use” Dilemma
• Why This Matters for Your Cloud Choices
• The Cloudwards Expert Take
• What You Can Do About It

What’s Project Nimbus?

Project Nimbus is a cloud computing project announced by the Israeli Finance Ministry in April 2021 to provide “the government, the defense establishment, and others with an all-encompassing cloud solution.”

Through the $1.2 billion contract, Google (Google Cloud Platform) and Amazon (Amazon Web Services) were selected to provide Israeli government agencies with cloud computing services, including artificial intelligence and machine learning

But here’s the kicker: the terms Israel set for the project contractually forbid Amazon and Google from halting services due to boycott pressure. These companies literally cannot back out, even if they wanted to. Moreover, the tech companies are contractually forbidden from denying service to any particular entities of the Israeli government.

What exactly are they getting? Google’s cloud platform includes AI tools capable of facial detection, automated image categorization, object tracking and sentiment analysis — all of which have been previously used by U.S. Customs and Border Protection for border surveillance. However, it is still unclear exactly which tools are being provided and how they’re being used.

According to a Google spokesperson, the contract is for workloads related to “finance, healthcare, transportation, and education” and does not deal with highly sensitive or classified information. But internal documents from both Google and the Israeli government contradict this claim, revealing much deeper military integration than publicly acknowledged.

Overall, this represents a fundamental restructuring of how the Israeli government and military operate in the digital age.