Kamal Ghorui
A 20-year-old from Texas drove to San Francisco, lobbed a Molotov cocktail at OpenAI CEO Sam Altman‘s home at 3:37 in the morning, then showed up at the company’s headquarters an hour and a half later—holding a jug of kerosene and threatening to burn the building down. When police arrested him, they found something that made the whole picture considerably darker: a handwritten three-part document laying out, in explicit terms, exactly what he had come to do and who else was on his list.That man is Daniel Moreno-Gama, and he is now facing both state and federal charges, including attempted murder, attempted arson, possession of an unregistered firearm, and attempted destruction of property by means of explosives.
A 90-minute window from Altman’s home to OpenAI’s front door
According to the FBI affidavit, Moreno-Gama threw the incendiary device at two neighboring homes owned by Altman, setting off a fire at the top of the driveway gate. He then fled on foot. Surveillance footage captured a figure in a dark hoodie and pants lighting and tossing the device before running off into the pre-dawn quiet of San Francisco’s Russian Hill neighborhood.At around 5:00 a.m.—roughly ninety minutes after the attack on Altman’s home—Moreno-Gama arrived at OpenAI’s headquarters. He grabbed a chair and used it to strike the glass doors. When on-site security personnel approached him, he told them he had come to burn the building down and kill everyone inside, according to court documents. San Francisco Police Department officers arrested him on the spot and recovered incendiary devices, a jug of kerosene, a blue lighter, and the document.No one was injured at either location.
Three-part anti-AI document named Altman—and listed others
The document recovered from Moreno-Gama is what federal prosecutors are leaning on heavily as evidence of premeditation and motive. As reported by CNBC, FBI Acting Special Agent in Charge Matt Cobo was direct at Monday’s press conference: “This was not spontaneous. This was planned, targeted and extremely serious.”The affidavit describes the document as a three-part series. The first section was titled “Your Last Warning,” followed by Moreno-Gama’s own name. In it, he wrote that he had “killed/attempted to kill” the OpenAI CEO—referred to as “Victim-1” throughout the federal filing. He also wrote that if he was going to advocate for others to commit violence, he had to lead by example and prove his sincerity.The second section was titled “some more words on the matter of our impending extinction”—a reference to Moreno-Gama’s stated belief that AI poses an existential threat to humanity. The third part was a direct letter to Altman, which closed with the line that if Altman somehow survived, Moreno-Gama would take it as a divine sign for him to “redeem yourself.”Beyond the rhetoric, the document also contained the names and addresses of other AI company CEOs, board members, and investors. Prosecutors have not publicly named those individuals.
Domestic terrorism framing, charges that carry up to 20 years
Moreno-Gama is being held at San Francisco County Jail. The 11 state charges he faces carry a sentence ranging from 19 years to life in prison. On the federal side, the explosives charge alone carries a mandatory minimum of five years and a maximum of 20. The firearm charge adds up to another 10 years.U.S. Attorney Craig Missakian said that if the evidence shows the attacks were intended to coerce government officials or change public policy, prosecutors would pursue domestic terrorism charges.FBI Director Kash Patel confirmed Monday that a related operation had been conducted at Moreno-Gama’s home in Spring, Texas—a suburb of Houston—earlier in the day.Altman, meanwhile, addressed the attack on his personal blog, posting a photo of his family and writing that he had “underestimated the power of words and narratives.” He called on the broader AI industry to bring down the temperature—fewer explosions, he said, “figuratively and literally.”
