SAN FRANCISCO—On Sunday, April 12 at about 1:35 a.m., a white Honda sedan drove past 40-year-old Open AI CEO Sam Altman’s home in the Russian Hill District. At 1:40 a.m., the vehicle returned to fire a single gunshot through the passenger’s side of the vehicle into the Lombard side of Altman’s home.
Sam Altman is CEO and co-founder of Open AI, which is the company responsible for ChatGPT. Since mid-2024, his net worth is estimated to be over $2 billion from early investments in companies like Stripe and Reddit. To avoid conflict of interest, he holds no direct equity, earning a salary of $76,000.
At 2:56 a.m., officers from the San Francisco Police Department were dispatched to the home because of “suspicious occurrence of possible shots fired.”
Amanda Tom, 25, and Muhamad Tarik Hussein, 23, were apprehended near Taylor Street. The SFPD seized three firearms in their possession after a search of their residence.
From investigating the license plate, authorities were able to apprehend Tom and Hussein at another home. They were booked into San Francisco County Jail, charging them both with negligent discharge of a firearm.
On Friday, April 10, Daniel Alejandro Moreno-Gama of Texas threw an ignited Molotov cocktail at the Altmans’ front gate. The device bounced off the gate. It caused a small fire, but it was quickly put out by property security guards. No injuries were reported.
At 4:12 a.m., fire crews from the San Francisco Fire Department, who were on the scene notified the San Francisco Police Department. Authorities an incendiary device. Surveillance video captured Moreno-Gama, and a description was sent to all officers of the SFPD.
A recent profile in The New Yorker raised questions about Sam Altman’s leadership roles and transparency in Y Combinator in 2019. He served on Y Combinator from 2014 to 2019, where he expanded the accelerator’s reach to “hard tech’ sectors. Open AI and Altman are in a legal battle with Elon Reeve Musk, the wealthiest person in the world since 2025, who said the company abandoned its original nonprofit mission.
Altman attended Stanford University for 2 years before dropping out to co-find the location-based social app, Loopt, in 2005. He is involved in high-stakes technology other than AI. He chairs the board for Helion Energy, a nuclear fusion company, and just stepped down as chair for Oklo, Inc., avoiding potential conflicts.
He is married to software engineer Oliver Mulherin in 2024. They welcomed a child in February 2025.
