Tech executives fear for their lives due to AI backlash

The man had entered following a badge-swiping employee. He showed the guard an envelope bearing the name of a top Anthropic executive.

He told the guard, according to records of the April 15 incident seen by The Wall Street Journal, that the executive was “going to be killed” and that he needed to warn someone.

The encounter, which took place five days after a attempted firebombing The home of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman ended without any violence or arrests. But for executives in the anthropic and artificial-intelligence industry, the threat was far from over.

in recent months, Growing opposition to AI There has been an increase in violent rhetoric, threats against people and property, and serious attempts to cause harm. The phenomenon is causing executives at tech companies large and small to rethink their personal security practices and how they talk about their products to a public that is growing wary of technology and the social changes it brings.

Police in San Francisco have responded to multiple threats against Anthropic and OpenAI employees, according to records seen by the Journal.

The Texas man who allegedly threw incendiary substance at Altman’s home has been charged with attempted murder and attempted arson. officials got a manifesto Advocating the murder of AI CEOs and investors. He pleaded not guilty.

That same month, a man who applied for a job at Anthropic using a fake name allegedly threatened to skin the children of company employees as “punishment” for theft of his work, according to police records. Police classified the incident as a terrorist threat but made no arrests. The man said he had “no real desire to physically harm anyone.”

In June, Anthropic security officers reported an Oklahoma man to police after he threatened violence while demanding a refund, according to police records. He wanted to talk to a human being.

“Since you all refuse to get a real person to contact me and return my money, I will come to your office with my pistol and then we will talk about my money,” the person wrote.

The volume of digital threats targeting AI leaders and data centers increased sevenfold between the end of February and May, according to Liferaft, which scans social media and the dark web for Fortune 100 companies.

“The thing that’s surprised me is how bad it’s gotten in such a short period of time,” said Jonathan Graff, Liferaft’s CEO. The number of threats decreased slightly in June.

Aware of the backlash, some tech leaders have begun traveling with armed guards. Some people remain silent on the topic of AI to avoid attention. Industry leaders who had been issuing dire warnings about the risks posed by artificial intelligence to the workforce have turned to talking about it. potential benefits. Still, they are pushing to develop more sophisticated models, as Americans increasingly use the technology and express skepticism about its impact on jobs. child welfare And energy prices.

Altman responded to the attack on his home posting a photo About her husband and child “in the hopes that it might stop the next person from throwing a Molotov cocktail at our house, no matter what they think of me.” OpenAI did not respond to requests for comment.

“We have a pretty thick skin right now,” he said.

Earlier this year, Laqua hired extra security for the café after someone vandalized the company’s free shuttle bus.

In 2025, 38.1% of S&P 500 technology companies disclosed spending on executive security, up from 26.8% in 2021, according to an analysis of filings by Equilar.

The three companies reporting big jumps in security spending operate near the epicenter of the AI ​​boom. Spending on executive security by Palantir Technologies increased 150% in one year to nearly $3 million in 2025. At Oracle, spending increased 85.5% to $5.6 million from $3 million the previous year. The disclosures reveal that much of that money funded Larry Ellison’s residential security in an environment with “specific threats and security concerns.” Salesforce spending increased to nearly $4 million, about $1 million more than in 2024.

Salesforce declined to comment. Oracle and Palantir did not respond to requests for comment. At a conference on AI and labor organized by American Compass this year, Palantir Chief Executive Alex Karp said the fear of unemployment is creating a backlash. When told “your job is about to end, people go for the pitchforks,” he said.

“A few years ago, tech CEOs certainly didn’t have security,” said Dakota Dominguez, vice president of client relations for JPT Security, based in Silicon Valley. “A lot of tech companies are now building it into their budgets.”

Dominguez said tech companies are increasingly asking for armed guards because of the backlash against the industry. Unlike music stars or politicians, who often prefer heavily armed bodyguards, tech executives typically seek less-obvious protection, he said.

“In the tech environment, what I see is a much thinner profile,” he said.

Nabih Numair, a longtime security professional in Silicon Valley, said AI companies are discouraging their rank-and-file employees from wearing corporate logos because of the risk of targeted attacks, especially in unfamiliar areas.

A current Anthropic security employee and a former employee said in online posts seen by the Journal that security at the company has increased significantly over the past few years. One said their role in 2025 was to protect CEO Dario Amodei, but that mandate soon expanded to support founders, other C-suite executives and their families globally. Security staff did not respond to requests for comment.

Anthropic has operated a round-the-clock security system since 2024 and regularly communicates with employees about emerging threats, a company spokesperson said in a statement.

“We track relevant behavior over time through a person-of-interest process, allowing us to catch increased patterns early on,” the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson said that several individuals involved in incidents reported to police were already being monitored by Anthropic Security. In the case of the person who sneaked into the lobby, the spokesperson said the company’s security team has been instructed to de-escalate the situation and not detain people.

Daniel Green, a Kansas City, Mo., consultant who works on AI training and corporate-technology adoption, said the people he’s encountered have internalized the rhetoric from executives that technology is a job killer and that using it is akin to training a replacement.

“People talk about AI in the context of the Industrial Revolution, and the Luddites were actually pretty violent,” he said.

Mark Zuckerberg’s yacht was spotted in Seattle in May. Amid the AI ​​pivot in Washington state, Meta Platform just announced nearly 1,400 layoffs.

At a conference on AI and labor, Palantir’s Karp called political unrest the industry’s No. 1 challenge. Karp said he would advise his colleagues that “none of us will make any money when the country explodes.”

According to a March survey of nearly 1,400 American adults by Quinnipiac University, Americans who are concerned about AI outweigh those who are not by a margin of more than 4 to 1. A growing share of respondents in that survey – 55% – said they believed AI was doing more harm than good.

Bonnie Kate Wolf, 34, a Pinterest designer, was fired from her job over the company’s adoption of AI in operations. Before her account was deactivated, she posted on an office Slack channel: “Please don’t forget all of us who are being left behind and replaced by AI. Resist.” Hundreds of people responded with heart or raised fist emojis.

Seattle’s Wolf said it seems executives accept that the job losses are worth it because the potential to make money with AI is so great. “That’s why people are setting warehouses on fire,” he said. “You can’t go back to slavery. It really seems like the people in power want to be kings. Historically, that doesn’t work for kings.”

Write to Lindsay Ellis lindsay.elis@wsj.comon zusha allinson zusha.elinson@wsj.com And on Tina Lee tina.li@wsj.com