Suspect in attack at Sam Altman’s house charged with attempted murder and attempted arson

By Hadas Gold, CNN

(CNN) — The man who allegedly threw an incendiary device at the home of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is facing attempted murder and attempted arson charges, authorities said Monday.

Daniel Moreno-Gama, a 20-year-old from Texas, is accused of throwing an incendiary device at Altman’s home on Friday night, before going on to strike at the glass doors of OpenAI’s San Francisco headquarters with a chair while saying he wanted “to burn it down and kill anyone inside,” according to a criminal complaint filed Monday by the FBI. He was arrested outside of OpenAI’s offices the night of the incident. No one was injured.

The attack “was planned, targeted and extremely serious,” Matt Cobo, FBI San Francisco acting special agent in charge, said during a news conference on Monday.

The Department of Justice also alleged Moreno-Gama possessed a three-part document he wrote that opposed AI: The first part was entitled “Your Last Warning,” and advocated for the killing of CEOs of AI companies and their investors.

Authorities also recovered “incendiary devices,” a jug of kerosene and a blue lighter from Moreno-Gama, according to the criminal complaint.

Moreno-Gama faces both state and federal charges, including attempted murder – both of Altman and the security guard who was at his house the night of the attack – and attempted arson on the state level, and on the federal level, charges related to an unregistered firearm and attempted damage and destruction of property by means of explosives.

“We interpret this behavior for just what it is: An attempt on Mr. Altman’s life and an extreme danger to those around him and those who work for his company,” San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said during Monday’s news conference.

He could also face charges related to domestic terrorism, said Craig Missakian, US Attorney for Northern District of California.

“If the evidence shows that Mr. Moreno-Gama executed these attacks to change public policy or to coerce government or other officials, we will treat this as an act of domestic terrorism, and together with our partners, prosecute him to the fullest extent of the law,” Missakian said.

CNN is working to determine whether Moreno-Gama has legal representation.

According to the federal criminal complaint, San Francisco police officers found a document Moreno-Gama was carrying which “identified views opposed to Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the executives of various AI companies,” including Altman. Moreno-Gama “discussed the purported risk AI poses to humanity” and wrote about killing Altman, as well as listing out the “names and addresses of apparent board members and chief executive officers of AI companies and investors.”

The complaint says Moreno-Gama also appeared to have emailed a similar version of the document to people at his former college, which Cobo identified as Lone Star College in Montgomery, Texas.

Authorities don’t have confirmation that he is currently attending school, Cobo said.

FBI agents raided Moreno-Gama’s home in Texas on Monday, CNN affiliate KHOU reported.

“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 on X.

In a personal blog post on Friday evening, Altman shared a photo of his husband and baby “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.

“To ensure society gets AI right, we need to work through the democratic process and a robust debating of ideas is an important part of a healthy democracy. We welcome a good faith debate,” OpenAI said in a statement. “However, there is no place in our democracy for violence against anyone, regardless of the AI lab they work at or side of the debate they belong to. We are grateful to law enforcement for their quick response and that no one was hurt.”

Moreno-Gama is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday afternoon, according to the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office. The DA will move to have him held in custody pending trial without bail, the office said in a release Monday.

This story has been updated with additional information.

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