The FBI raided the Texas home of a 20-year-old suspect accused of throwing a Molotov cocktail at CEO Sam Altman’s house in San Francisco, two U.S. officials and the FBI director confirmed.
“This morning, the FBI and partners conducted an operation in Texas, related to a subject in custody allegedly in connection with the attack on Open AI CEO Sam Altman’s home on Friday morning. Thank you to our agents, intel teams, and partners for the coordination,” FBI Director Kash Patel wrote early Monday evening on social media, noting that FBI San Francisco would host a news conference at 3 p.m. PT/6 p.m. ET.
The Department of Justice is expected to file federal charges Monday, including attempted damage and destruction of property by means of explosives and possession of an unregistered firearm. Fox News was the first to report the FBI raid.
If convicted, he would face a mandatory minimum sentence of five years and up to 20 years in prison on the explosives charge, and could face up to 10 years for possessing an unregistered destructive device, along with potential fines and supervised release.
The suspect, identified as 20-year-old Daniel Moreno-Gama, is accused of traveling from Spring, Texas, to San Francisco to target the OpenAI CEO’s home and carry out the attack, which took place early Friday morning. An exterior gate caught on fire, but no one was hurt, police said.
Department of Justice
According to an FBI affidavit, after allegedly throwing the Molotov cocktail, Moreno-Gama attempted to go to OpenAI’s headquarters, where he “retrieved a chair and used it to strike the glass doors.” According to on-site security, he said he came to the headquarters to “burn it down and kill anyone inside,” the affidavit states.
Federal prosecutors said San Francisco Police recovered a document that Moreno-Gama wrote, in which he allegedly claimed responsibility for attempting to kill Altman, argued that others should commit similar acts and had a list of other CEOs, board members and investors of AI companies, according to the affidavit.
Officers recovered multiple incendiary devices, a jug of kerosene and a lighter from Moreno-Gama when he was arrested, according to the affidavit.
OpenAI earlier said in a statement that the person who was suspected of throwing the Molotov cocktail had also allegedly made threats against the company’s headquarters, also in San Francisco.
