OpenAI’s security team uncovered a USB‑style recording device wrapped in toilet paper inside a television in the company’s executive conference room, a discovery that prompted the firm to alert the FBI.
A 35‑year‑old Saudi engineer, Abdulrahman Alfozan, who joined OpenAI in July 2025, was arrested on Oct. 9 in San Francisco for planting the device.
Alfozan allegedly used a productivity tool to gather data on OpenAI’s office layout, personnel calendars, and meeting schedules, and his chatbot account linked to his wife queried remote audio recording and SD‑card encryption.
Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton said the incident highlights the national‑security stakes of the AI race and underscored the intelligence community’s resolve to protect U.S. intellectual property.
The case arrives as Saudi Arabia’s state‑backed AI firm Humain invested $3 billion in Elon Musk’s xAI, now SpaceXAI, and the two are building a 500‑megawatt data center in the kingdom.