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FBI Arrests OpenAI Employee Abdulrahman Alfozan, a Saudi Venture Partner
Abdulrahman Alfozan, an OpenAI employee and Saudi national, was arrested by the FBI on October 9 and charged with secretly placing a recording device in an executive conference room. Court documents show he had booked one-way tickets to Saudi Arabia and had been inquiring about OpenAI's meeting rooms for weeks.
Abdulrahman Alfozan, an OpenAI employee and Saudi national, was arrested by the FBI on October 9 and charged with secretly placing a recording device in an executive conference room, according to a federal complaint. The arrest has drawn attention to his dual role as a venture partner at a Saudi Arabia-based investment firm and his ties to prominent Saudi figures.
Alfozan, a legal permanent resident of the United States since September 2020, has a 15-year professional and educational history in the country, beginning with his enrollment at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2011. His LinkedIn profile lists positions at SAP, Microsoft, Meta, and OpenAI, along with nine awards, five volunteer experiences, and a healthcare-related patent. In 2025, he became one of 20 venture partners at RAED Ventures, a Saudi Arabia-based firm. He is still pictured on RAED's website, and the firm has not responded to requests for comment on whether he remains associated with it.
The federal complaint does not allege a motive. It charges Alfozan with using or endeavoring to use an electronic, mechanical, or other device to intercept oral communications. A trial attorney from the Justice Department's National Security Division, in its Counterintelligence and Export Control Section, is assisting the prosecution. The complaint does not charge him with stealing trade secrets, nor does it allege that he acted for a foreign government. OpenAI said in a post on X that it had «no indications» he inappropriately accessed or exfiltrated model weights, source code, or customer data.
According to the complaint, Alfozan allegedly asked a workplace AI tool about OpenAI's meeting rooms in the six weeks before the device was planted. Starting August 17, he allegedly asked a productivity agent internal to OpenAI about conference room capacities and which meetings were held in them. He also asked how to send USPS packages to the building. Then, starting September 24, he allegedly used a ChatGPT account associated with his wife to submit prompts about OpenAI's meeting rooms. He, his wife, and a third family member had booked one-way tickets from San Francisco to Saudi Arabia, via Istanbul, for October 12, according to a motion to seal the case.
Alfozan joined OpenAI in July 2025, the company told Fortune, while his personal LinkedIn says he joined in September 2025. OpenAI did not respond to a question about the discrepancy. It is unclear whether OpenAI allowed Alfozan to hold an outside investing role at RAED while he worked there. The company declined to share its conflict-of-interest policy.
RAED Ventures also lists Prince Khalid bin Bader Al Saud, a member of the Saudi royal family, as a partner as of February 6, 2025. He founded the AI company Echelon in 2025, which emerged from stealth on October 6, 2026. Al Saud is also an advisor for the U.S.-based venture fund Andreessen Horowitz, or a16z, which is an early backer of Echelon. «Congratulations to our great partner!» wrote Ben Horowitz, co-founder and general partner at a16z, in Al Saud's LinkedIn post announcing Echelon. RAED announced Alfozan became a partner on February 8, 2025, two days after its announcement of Al Saud.
Saudi Arabia has been an active investor in U.S.-based AI firms. In 2025, AI chip startup Groq secured a $1.5 billion commitment from the kingdom, Reuters reported. Saudi Arabia also has a state-backed artificial intelligence company, HUMAIN, which in 2025 led a $900 million funding round for the media production startup Luma AI, according to Semafor. HUMAIN also partnered with U.S.-based AI coding platform Replit in 2025. OpenAI reportedly held talks with Saudi Arabian investors in 2025, which The Information reported at the time. In January 2026, the company returned to the Middle East and was in talks with sovereign wealth funds, CNBC reported. Nothing in the court filings connects Alfozan to any of these investments.
Alfozan's ties to government-related investors hint at the circles he may have moved in within Saudi Arabia. The presence of a Saudi royal family member as a partner at RAED, alongside Alfozan, underscores the intersection of private investment and royal interests in the kingdom's technology sector.
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