A 20-year-old Texas man accused of trying to kill OpenAI CEO Sam Altman by throwing a Molotov cocktail at Altman’s San Francisco home was ordered held without bail Tuesday after his first court appearance on state charges. Daniel Moreno-Gama, of Spring, Texas, is now set for arraignment on May 5.
Authorities said Moreno-Gama hurled the incendiary device at Altman’s home on Friday, setting an exterior gate on fire before fleeing on foot. Less than an hour later, he went to OpenAI’s headquarters about 3 miles away and threatened to burn down the building. No one was injured.
The case moved quickly because prosecutors say Moreno-Gama did not act on a whim. San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins called it a “targeted attack on Mr. Altman,” while FBI San Francisco Acting Special Agent in Charge Matt Cobo said Monday, after agents spent several hours at Moreno-Gama’s home in a Houston suburb, “This was not spontaneous. This was planned, targeted and extremely serious.”
Jenkins said Moreno-Gama tried to kill both Altman and a security guard at the residence, and she said the state charges carry penalties ranging from 19 years to life in prison. He is charged in California state court with 2 counts of attempted murder and 2 counts of attempted arson, and he also faces federal charges, including possession of an unregistered firearm and damage and destruction of property by means of explosives.
Diamond Ward, the San Francisco deputy public defender, pushed back hard, calling the case a “property crime, at best,” and saying it was unfair to “fear monger and to exploit the mental illness of a vulnerable, young man by turning a vandalism case into an attempted murder, life exposure case to gain support of a billionaire, and to get political points at the expense of true justice for everyone involved.” Her argument places the battle over this case squarely in the middle of a much larger public fight over how the justice system treats threats tied to technology, mental health and power.
Court filings say Moreno-Gama expressed hatred of artificial intelligence and described it as a danger to humanity, warning of impending extinction. Authorities said he worked part-time at a pizzeria and was attending community college. The prosecution says it has evidence to support the charges, and the next test will come on May 5, when the case returns to court with a defendant already held behind bars.
The attack also lands in the shadow of earlier reporting on OpenAI and Altman, including the role of internal disputes around the company in a separate turbulent chapter for the CEO. Here, though, the question is narrower and more immediate: whether investigators can prove that the 20-year-old crossed from anger to a coordinated plan that started at Altman’s home and, within the hour, carried him to the company’s front door.
