Police arrest suspect after a Molotov cocktail was thrown at Sam Altman's $27 million home

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images 2026-04-10T18:34:33.775Z Share Copy link Email Facebook WhatsApp X LinkedIn Bluesky Threads lighning bolt icon An icon in the shape of a lightning bolt.

Impact Link Save Saved Read in app This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. Have an account? Log in. OpenAI said someone threw a Molotov cocktail at Sam Altman's San Francisco home early Friday morning.

The San Francisco Police Department has a suspect in custody. OpenAI praised the SFPD's quick response and said that no one was harmed during the incident. AI-generated summary Summaries are generated by an AI model trained on Business Insider's articles. AI may make mistakes or provide inaccurate/incomplete information. We're unable to load that answer right now. Please try again. Who is Sam Altman? How does OpenAI handle security threats? How has AI perception changed recently? What is a Molotov cocktail? What is OpenAI's relationship with the Pentagon? San Francisco police say they have a 20-year-old male in custody after someone threw a Molotov cocktail at Sam Altman's mansion early Friday morning. Loading audio narration... Officers responded to a North Beach residence at approximately 4:12 a.m. local time for a fire investigation, a spokesperson for the San Francisco Police Department, Allison Maxie, said in a statement. No one was injured and the fire was contained to an exterior gate, the spokesperson said.OpenAI later confirmed that the attack occurred at Altman's $27 million estate in the Russian Hill neighborhood of San Francisco. The suspect fled on foot, and his description was later broadcast to all officers, according to SFPD.At around 5:07 a.m., officers responded to OpenAI's office, where they said an unknown man was threatening to burn down the building. Officers quickly realized the man making the threats matched the description of the individual who threw the Molotov cocktail at Altman's home, the police spokesperson said. A spokesperson for OpenAI praised SFPD's quick response."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," a spokesperson for the AI company said. "We deeply appreciate how quickly SFPD responded and the support from the city in helping keep our employees safe." SFPD said that charges are still pending and the investigation is ongoing. Once just a mainstay in Silicon Valley and the startup scene, Altman has become an international fixture who has traveled with President Donald Trump and met one-on-one with numerous other foreign leaders. At the same time, views of AI in the US have cratered in recent months. Criticism of OpenAI spiked in the wake of the company's decision to announce a deal with the Pentagon just hours after Anthropic refused to agree to the Department of Defense's contractual demands.