Google will not use NDA clause in Nimbus staff dispute

The dispute is about Project Nimbus, a 2021 deal of $1.2bn with Israel for data centres and cloud storage. Google says its work is not for very sensitive or classified military work.

A Google executive told the UK staff this week that Google will not use a clause of its NDA. The clause was for workers who speak against the company after they stop work there. An NDA is a secrecy agreement. Sofia Liguori, a research engineer at Google DeepMind in London, resigned on 20 October and then spoke out. The report comes from openDemocracy.

What changed

Liguori says that a suit by Google was the primary risk for Liguori. The statement of the executive removes that risk for UK staff. The report does not tell if the change is written down or if it includes staff in other countries.

Why she resigned

At the end of April 2026, Google signed a contract with the US Department of War. It lets the Pentagon use Google AI for all lawful purposes of the government, with mission planning and weapons targeting. More than 600 colleagues sent a petition to the chief executive, Sundar Pichai. Liguori resigned after the petition did not stop the deal.

What the sides say

Google says its work in Israel is not for very sensitive or classified military work. Training materials leaked in 2022 show that Israeli government departments, with the Ministry of Defense, can use the full set of Google Cloud AI tools. Liguori says Google is complicit.

Insight: Google dropped the legal threat, not the contract

In April 2026 Google signed the Pentagon deal, and more than 600 staff sent a petition against it. Google drops the NDA clause for UK staff. This reads as a small concession: it removes the risk of a suit in court, while the contracts stay. Look for if Google writes it down and extends it to other countries.