Man faces attempted murder charges after Molotov attack on Sam Altman home

A 20-year-old man from Texas has been charged in California with two counts of attempted murder after prosecutors say he threw a Molotov cocktail at the San Francisco home of OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman. The suspect, Daniel Moreno-Gama, is due to be arraigned on Tuesday, according to the BBC. Federal prosecutors have also filed felony charges including possession of an unregistered firearm and attempted damage and destruction of property using explosives.

According to the US Justice Department complaint cited by the BBC, the first incident happened around 4:00am on Friday when Moreno-Gama allegedly set fire to an exterior gate at Altman’s home and fled on foot. About an hour later, he is accused of attempting to set fire to OpenAI’s San Francisco headquarters, where security staff said he tried to use a chair to strike glass doors. Officers later recovered incendiary devices, a jug of kerosene and a lighter, prosecutors say. No one was injured.

Investigators say Moreno-Gama carried documents warning about risks from artificial intelligence and calling for violence against AI executives and investors. The complaint describes a section titled “Some more words on the matter of our impending extinction” and language that prosecutors interpret as an intent to “lead by example” by committing crimes himself. The documents allegedly included names and addresses of board members, CEOs and investors at multiple AI companies.

The case lands amid a widening political and commercial fight over who gets to build and control frontier AI systems. OpenAI’s consumer breakthrough with ChatGPT in 2022 drew a surge of capital into the sector, turning model development into a strategic industry with high-profile executives, large valuations and increasingly visible security perimeters. The same concentration of money and attention also concentrates personal risk: homes and offices become targets when abstract arguments about technology are translated into individual blame.

OpenAI said there was “no place in our democracy for violence against anyone,” and urged debate through democratic processes. San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said she was grateful Altman, his family and employees were unhurt. FBI Director Kash Patel said the bureau conducted a related raid in Texas.

Altman himself linked the attack to what he called an “incendiary” recent profile of him in The New Yorker, then later said he regretted making that connection after criticism online.

Moreno-Gama is accused of attacking both Altman’s home and OpenAI’s headquarters within roughly an hour on the same morning.