As artificial intelligence reshapes economies and unsettles public opinion in equal measure, the executives building it have quietly become targets. Leading AI companies, including OpenAI and Anthropic, are significantly expanding security for senior leaders and staff after a sharp rise in threats over the past few months, according to a Wall Street Journal report. No major violent incident has been confirmed so far, but the companies are overhauling their protective strategies in response.
A String of Unsettling Incidents
On April 15, a man slipped into Anthropic’s office lobby by following closely behind a badge-swiping employee. He showed a security guard an envelope marked with a senior executive’s name and warned that the executive was “going to be killed,” according to company records. No arrest was made. The episode came five days after an alleged attempted firebombing at the residence of OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman, a case in which police filed charges including attempted murder and attempted arson.
Anthropic has reported several other incidents through the year. In one case, a man who had allegedly applied for a job under a false identity later posted online that employees’ children should be harmed, a message investigators classified as a terroristic threat, though no arrest followed after he said he had no actual intent to cause harm. In June, an Oklahoma man reportedly threatened to arrive at the company’s office with a firearm after being unable to reach customer support over a refund.
The Numbers Behind the Alarm
Cyber threat intelligence firm Liferaft, which monitors social media and the dark web for Fortune 100 companies, recorded a sevenfold increase in online threats directed at AI executives and data centres between late February and May, though the volume eased somewhat in June. Liferaft’s chief executive has said he was struck by how quickly the situation deteriorated over such a short period.
Corporate governance firm Equilar found that 38.1 per cent of technology companies in the S&P 500 disclosed spending on executive security in 2025, up from 26.8 per cent in 2021. Firms including Palantir, Oracle and Salesforce have also significantly stepped up investment in executive protection, and some AI leaders have begun travelling with armed guards or deliberately staying quiet in public to avoid drawing attention.
Why the Backlash Is Growing
Experts trace the rising hostility to anxieties around AI-driven job displacement, automation and the broader social disruption the technology is expected to bring. Surveys have found a significant share of Americans believe AI is more likely to harm society than benefit it, sentiment that increasingly appears to be translating into targeted anger against the people leading the industry rather than the technology in the abstract.
Renowned cybercrime expert and former IPS officer Prof. Triveni Singh said the rapid expansion of AI has meaningfully increased both cyber and physical threats against technology executives, data centres and critical digital infrastructure. He said organisations must now prioritise not just advanced cybersecurity, but executive protection, threat intelligence, risk assessment and emergency response planning, since technology-driven social and economic tensions are increasingly spilling over into real-world security incidents.
A Preview of a Wider Problem
For India, where AI adoption is accelerating across banking, government and enterprise, the episode is a reminder that the social friction accompanying rapid technological change is not confined to Silicon Valley. As domestic AI firms and data centres scale up, security planners here too may need to weigh physical protection alongside the cybersecurity concerns that have so far dominated the conversation.
