Google Cloud CEO Diane Green will no longer attend the Future Investment Initiative conference scheduled from Oct. 23 to Oct. 25 in Saudi Arabia.
With this, Google is the latest company to join the already long list of supposed attendees that decided to withdraw at the last minute.
The boycott happens as the international community grapples with the mysterious disappearance of Saudi Journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
The Future Investment Initiative conference is jointly organized by Saudi's Public Investment Fund which seeks to become one of the world's largest and most impactful sovereign wealth funds. The event would have been a platform where Saudi Arabia, under the present rule of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, would lay out plans on how it will diversify its economy from being solely reliant to its oil industry.
The event is set to take place amid unconfirmed reports that the Saudi government will allegedly acknowledge that Khashoggi died from an interrogation conducted inside the kingdom's consulate in Turkey. The interrogation was only intended to have the journalist apprehended from Istanbul according to unnamed sources who spoke with CNN.
CNN additionally reported that Turkish authorities have heard and seen firsthand evidence that Khashoggi was murdered inside the Consulate.
The murky details surrounding the journalist's disappearance sparked a diplomatic row between Saudi Arabia and western countries. The United Kingdom, France, and Germany have joined the United States in demanding a credible investigation into the circumstances of Khashoggi's death.
Ahead of Google, elite businesses have already pulled from the Future Investment Initiative conference until the kingdom issued an official statement regarding the controversy.
Among those who have canceled attendance were Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, Virgin Group Founder Richard Branson, AOL co-founder Steve Case, JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, Ford Chairman Bill Ford, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, and Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman.
Many star-ups that received funding from Saudi's Public Investment Fund through Japan's SoftBank $100 billion Vision Fund were thrown in a difficult position as the controversy heightens. These start-ups include Uber, Slack, and WeWork.
Meanwhile, big names in the media industry have also withdrawn their participation from the event. Among them were The New York Times, Bloomberg, The Financial Times, CNN, and CNBC.
The World Bank was among the first supposed participants to have pulled out from the event.
Khashoggi has been residing in the United States since 2017 after his self-imposed exile. He has been a strong critic of Saudi's present administration and he felt that he was no longer safe in the country.
Through The Washington Post, Khashoggi had continued writing columns that are critical of Saudi Arabia.
He was last seen on Oct. 2.
