Google Cloud CEO Diane Greene will no longer speak at the Future Investment Initiative conference in Saudi Arabia, joining a number of Silicon Valley leaders to drop out of the high-profile event following the disappearance and suspected slaying of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist and critic of the Saudi regime, didn't emerge from the Saudi consulate in Istanbul earlier this month. Turkish media have said that audio and video evidence prove that Khashoggi was killed by an elite Saudi "assassination squad," though the Saudi regime has pushed back against those allegations.
As global outrage has grown over Khashoggi's disappearance, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, Virgin Group founder Richard Branson, AOL co-founder Steve Case and others have all dropped out of the so-called "Davos in the Desert," which brings together business leaders from all over the world.
A company spokesperson confirmed to CNBC that Greene will not attend the conference though offered no further comment.
Although Silicon Valley has sought to distance itself from the Saudi government, many start-ups such as Uber, Slack, and WeWork have received money from Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, mainly through SoftBank's $100 billion Vision Fund.
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