Man Threatens To Burn Down AI Giant’s Headquarters, Throws Molotov Cocktail At CEO’s Home

A 20-year-old man was arrested after threatening to burn down the headquarters of artificial intelligence company OpenAI and chucking a Molotov cocktail at OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s San Francisco home early Friday morning.

San Francisco police said officers were called to investigate a fire at a home in North Beach around 4:12 a.m. local time and discovered that a male suspect had thrown an incendiary device at the house, sparking a fire at a gate outside the home. The suspect fled the scene on foot, but he was found by police around an hour later outside of OpenAI’s headquarters, where he was threatening to start another fire and burn the building down.

The San Francisco Police Department said the 20-year-old, who has yet to be identified, was taken into custody “immediately” after officers recognized him as the person who ran from officers after throwing a Molotov cocktail at Altman’s home.

“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,” OpenAI said. “We deeply appreciate how quickly SFPD responded and the support from the city in helping keep our employees safe. The individual is in custody, and we’re assisting law enforcement with their investigation.”

As of late Friday morning, charges against the suspect were still pending, and the San Francisco Police Department said the investigation remained “open and active.”

Altman, a central figure of the AI boom, lives in a mansion in the San Francisco neighborhood of Russian Hill. The AI executive bought the massive home for $27 million in March of 2020, according to the San Francisco Standard. Altman lives in the home with his husband and a baby boy whom they acquired through a surrogate mother in February of 2025.

Altman has faced criticism in recent years for rapidly pushing forward with AI development as some industry experts express concern about a lack of guidelines around the technology. Altman was fired by the OpenAI board in 2023 after accusations that he was not open or honest in his communications, especially with regard to AI safety. Altman, however, was reinstated as CEO after backlash from OpenAI employees and investors.

Altman and OpenAI have also been sued by Elon Musk, who helped start OpenAI, but then left the company’s board in 2018 over conflicts with his own pursuit of AI development. Earlier this week, Musk revised his lawsuit against OpenAI, demanding that Altman be removed as CEO and seeking to force the intelligence giant to end its for-profit structure and return to its nonprofit roots.

Musk has alleged that Altman and OpenAI President Greg Brockman “manipulated and misled” him into providing roughly $38 million in seed funding between 2015 and 2018, based on assurances that OpenAI would remain a nonprofit dedicated to open-source artificial general intelligence for the benefit of humanity.