A 20-year-old man was arrested this Friday on suspicion of throwing a Molotov cocktail at the residence of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman in San Francisco and threatening to set fire to the company's headquarters in California. The San Francisco Police Department said in a statement on X that an incident was reported at Altman's residence, where a man allegedly threw a Molotov cocktail at an outer gate early this morning, causing a fire but leaving no one injured. The suspect, who has not been identified, fled the scene on foot and was later arrested while allegedly threatening to set fire to a building in the city center. “Fortunately, no one was injured,” OpenAI said in a statement. “We are deeply grateful for the rapid response of the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD), as well as the support provided by the city to help ensure the safety of our employees.” It is unclear whether Altman was in his residence at the time of the attack. OpenAI said it is cooperating with the investigation. OpenAI's Board of Directors fired Altman in 2023, arguing that it “no longer trusted his ability to lead” and that he had not been fully transparent. However, pressure from investors and employees forced his reinstatement. This week, an investigation in The New York Times came to light, in which journalists Ronan Farrow and Andrew Marantz reviewed internal documents and interviewed more than 100 people to assess and question Altman's integrity and trustworthiness as head of the tech company. In August 2025, the parents of a 16-year-old who took his own life after months of interacting with ChatGPT filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and its owner, Sam Altman, for their responsibility in the teenager's death, allegedly for rushing to commercialize the GPT-4o version despite safety issues.
