A Texas man has been charged after federal prosecutors said he traveled to California and threw a Molotov cocktail at OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman’s San Francisco home, setting fire to an exterior gate in the early hours of Friday. No one was injured.
The suspect, identified as Daniel Moreno-Gama, was arrested about an hour later outside OpenAI’s headquarters after police said he was threatening to burn down the building. Court documents say the 20-year-old was caught on video surveillance outside Altman’s home around 4 a.m. Friday and allegedly had kerosene in his backpack when officers detained him.
Prosecutors said Moreno-Gama is charged with attempted damage and destruction of property by means of explosives and possession of an unregistered firearm. He is also accused of trying to hit the building’s glass with a chair, according to court filings. The case adds a federal charge to an episode that already raised fears around violence aimed at tech executives in San Francisco.
That concern is sharpened by what investigators said they found in his possession. Federal prosecutors said Moreno-Gama allegedly had a document expressing anti-AI-executive sentiments, along with a list of names and addresses of apparent board members and chief executive officers of artificial intelligence companies and investors. Court documents also say Moreno-Gama wrote that he had “killed /attempted to kill” Victim-1 and added, “Also if I am going to advocate for others to kill and commit crimes, then I must lead by example and show that I am fully sincere in my message.”
The incident was the same one described in an earlier report about a suspected Molotov cocktail fire outside Altman’s San Francisco home, but the federal filing gives the clearest account yet of what investigators say followed next. It also comes days after two people were arrested for allegedly firing shots at Altman’s house on Sunday morning, a separate case that deepened concerns around the safety of prominent AI figures.
For Moreno-Gama, the immediate next step is the federal case, which now centers not just on the fire at the gate but on the material investigators say he carried and the threats they say he made. For San Francisco, the question is less whether the danger was real than how many more warning signs were already in plain view.
