Ex-OpenAI employee accused of planting device appears to have Saudi backing, court filing shows

October 19, 2026 10:19 AM EDT

A photo provided by the US Justice Department shows what the department says is Abdulrahman Alfozan, a Saudi citizen who worked as an engineer at OpenAI, checking a hidden audio recording device in an executive conference room at the AI company. The location was identified as San Francisco.

WASHINGTON, Oct 19 (Reuters) - A former OpenAI employee accused of placing a recording device in a conference room used by company executives appears to have received significant support from the Saudi government, according to a court filing released on Monday.

(Reporting by Andrew Goudsward; writing by Bhargav Acharya; editing by Michelle Nichols)