Vercel faces boycott after founder poses with Netanyahu

Vercel is facing a growing boycott after founder Guillermo Rauch posted a photograph with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu late on Monday.

The company, which specialises in developer tools and cloud infrastructure, is now under pressure from developers and businesses who say they will no longer use its services.

Its founder, Guillermo Rauch, quickly drew criticism online after posting the image of him and Netanyahu, wanted by the International Criminal Court over the genocide in Gaza.

"Enjoyed my discussion with PM Netanyahu on how AI education and literacy will keep our free societies ahead. We spoke about AI empowering everyone to build software and the importance of ensuring it serves quality and progress," the image was captioned.

"Optimistic for peace, safety, and greatness for Israel and its neighbours," the caption added.

"The post triggered outrage across the tech sector, prompting at least one individual to resign from the company.

Adil Abbuthalha, founder of Boycat, an app that helps users identify and avoid brands, said his firm had already begun moving its platform away from Vercel.

"This is not just about where we host our apps, it is about where our values live. When the CEO of Vercel meets Netanyahu and praises Israel while Gaza is under siege, it shows how deeply tech can normalise injustice. Silence is not an option," Abbuthalha told The New Arab.

"We are already migrating everything off Vercel. There are powerful alternatives built by true leaders like Amjad Masad of Replit, and there are ethical options through self-hosting with Hetzner or services like Cloudflare. The tools are there, so the choice is ours," he said.

Abbuthalha highlighted that developers have plenty of ethical alternatives, including Replit, Hetzner, and Cloudflare, and urged others to follow suit.

"Their leaders cannot openly endorse apartheid without consequence. It proves that developers care not just about code, but about the lives affected by the systems we build," he said.

Other companies and developers have also announced they will divest from Vercel. The founder of Pluid, an education and analytics platform, confirmed they were moving their business elsewhere in a post.

"I will move our businesses away from Vercel as the founder is publicly aligning with a war criminal and taking pictures with him to post on social media. He is also supporting a genocidal state multiple times across his account," the founder of The Treeverse and Try Pluid, who asked to remain anonymous, told The New Arab.

"It’s important for us to make a stand and boycott companies that publicly support genocidal states and war criminals in the midst of the death of innocent women and kids daily," they added.

"I was excited to attend an event tomorrow in Munich hosted by the CTO Cramforce. Decided not to go after this unnecessary post. Booked hotel and everything. Will use time there migrating to Hetzner Online instead," another X user posted.

Screenshots of deleted accounts and tutorials on how to migrate away from Vercel quickly circulated online.

Amjad Masad, CEO of rival platform Replit, offered support to those leaving.

"For companies moving lots of work, happy to help and discount," he said. In a follow-up post, he recalled the backlash he faced for criticising Israel's war on Gaza, but said it had been worth the cost.

"If you’ve been holding back, now is the time to speak out and call out anyone supporting or celebrating genocide," he wrote.

Houssein Djirdeh, a former Google Chrome engineer, expressed disappointment with Rauch's public support for Israel.

"I really admired Vercel, truly. For years, I contributed to Next.js, spoke at their conferences, and made friends with so many people on their team. I even seriously considered working there," Djirdeh said.

He shared resources to help others migrate more smoothly.

Meanwhile, Canada-based engineering manager Sarah Etter said her company, Netlify, was hiring and encouraged developers leaving Vercel to apply.

The controversy comes as Israel's war on Gaza continues to create a humanitarian catastrophe, with reports of famine spreading across the enclave.

Israel has also faced criticism for deploying AI systems such as "Genie" and "Lavender" to generate targets for strikes, which rights groups warn has accelerated civilian deaths.

Earlier this year, Microsoft confirmed it had provided AI and cloud computing services to the Israeli military in support of its operations.

Israel has previously come under fire by using a military-grade artificial intelligence chatbot named to identify targets in Gaza.