Suspect Arrested After Molotov Cocktail Attack on OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's Home

A 20-year-old man hurled a flaming bottle at OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's San Francisco home before dawn on April 10, then threatened to burn down the company's Mission Bay headquarters less than two hours later, where police recognized and arrested him on the spot.

Daniel Alejandro Moreno-Gama threw a Molotov cocktail at the metal security gate of Altman's residence at 855 Chestnut St., in the Russian Hill neighborhood, at approximately 3:40 a.m. Security guards extinguished the fire before it spread; surveillance cameras captured the attack. Moreno-Gama fled on foot.

At 5:07 a.m., officers responding to reports of a man threatening to burn down a building on the 1400 block of Third Street recognized him from the earlier incident and detained him immediately. Moreno-Gama was booked into San Francisco County Jail Friday afternoon on charges of attempted murder, arson, criminal threats, two counts of possession of an incendiary device, and two counts of possessing a destructive device with intent to injure. No injuries were reported in either incident.

SFPD's Special Investigations and Arson Units are leading the case, with the FBI confirming it was aware of the incident and cooperating with local authorities, raising the possibility of federal charges tied to threats against corporate infrastructure.

OpenAI spokesperson Jamie Radice confirmed both incidents in a statement: "Early this morning, someone threw a Molotov cocktail at Sam Altman's home and also made threats at our San Francisco headquarters. Thankfully, no one was hurt. We deeply appreciate how quickly SFPD responded." The company notified employees there was no immediate threat but announced increased police and security presence at its 1455 Third Street campus.

Altman published a blog post Friday afternoon that included a photograph of his husband and their child. "I am sharing a photo in the hopes that it might dissuade the next person from throwing a Molotov cocktail at our house, no matter what they think about me," he wrote, adding a call for restraint in the debate over AI: "We should de-escalate the rhetoric and tactics and try to have fewer explosions in fewer homes, figuratively and literally."

The attack landed against a backdrop of sharpening public hostility toward AI. Just four days earlier, The New Yorker published an investigation by Ronan Farrow and Andrew Marantz examining allegations of manipulation and lack of transparency by Altman. A Gallup survey released the day before the attack found that among people aged 14 to 29, those who felt hopeful about AI had dropped from 27% to 18% year-over-year, while 31% said the technology made them feel angry.

Altman purchased 950 Lombard St., just below San Francisco's famous crooked section of Lombard Street, in March 2020 for $27 million, then the most expensive residential listing in the city, and acquired additional adjacent lots in January 2025. OpenAI is currently valued at $852 billion following a $40 billion funding round.

Shaun Fletcher, an associate professor of public relations, described the hostility in direct terms: "It's viewed by many in society as an existential threat, not on a high theoretical level, but quite honestly inside their homes, in their livelihood, and how they're going to feed themselves."

With the FBI now involved, what began as a local arson call has become a potential federal case, one that lays bare how law enforcement must reckon with physical violence directed at leaders of companies that have grown into some of the most powerful and contested institutions in the world.