Abdulrahman Alfozan loved Saudi Arabia.
One day before arresting the erstwhile OpenAI engineer on charges of bugging the office, the Justice Department concerned he would escape rear to his residence country. Alfozan, his wife, and another family associate had already booked one-way tickets, the division stated in a court filing.
It wouldn't be different for Alfozan's thoughts to come back to the Gulf. The idea of moving rear had followed him through his years operating in tech. It inspired him to established a nonprofit that connects Silicon Valley endowment alongside Saudi companies, and to associate a WhatsApp group alongside another Gulf professionals.
But he stayed in the US for one big reason, he stated in a translated interview released in September, in which he detailed his existence and work.
"The finest location for me to build specialized ability was Silicon Valley," Alfozan said. "You study from the source, afterward bring those skills and experiences rear home."
Now, concerning a twelvemonth following Alfozan took a job at OpenAI, the business stated that it established a recording device "concealed in toilet paper." The equipment was placed on the rear of a tv in an administrator gathering room, according to a grievance submitted in the Northern District of California. OpenAI wrote on X that it fired the employee — unnamed at the period — and referred the case to the FBI.
The Justice Department arrested Alfozan, who is 35, on October 9 and charged him alongside using an digital equipment to obstruct oral communications.
Alfozan has not yet submitted a plea. His lawyer, William Pernik, stated in a declaration that the allegations "appear entirely out of character for him."
"Mr. Alfozan came to this nation years ago as a young individual alongside a dream," Pernik said. "He spent years studying, operating and contributing to an American scientific field that leads the world, a field built in ample part by immigrants akin him."
From Saudi Arabia to Silicon Valley
Alfozan grew up in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia, anywhere he went to academy through elevated school. His begetter taught at a specialized university in Dammam, and he introduced Alfozan to device discipline professors and students, Alfozan stated on the September podcast.
A turning item was whenever Alfozan got into Mawhiba, Saudi Arabia's program for gifted students, he said. He bonded alongside his device discipline teachers who would "stay following academy or during breaks answering questions that had nothing to do alongside the curriculum," he said.
His archetypal trip to the US was through Mawhiba, he said, whenever he went to Texas for an Olympiad training program in 2008. Alfozan continued traveling to the US before college, posting on X concerning his trips to NASA's John F. Kennedy Space Center and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications.
He had an entrepreneurial soul since elevated school. On the podcast, he described observing family members in genuine asset log everything manually in spreadsheets. He built a scheme to oversee it, gave it to his relatives for free, and afterward began marketing it to another genuine asset offices, he said.
Alfozan got into the gifted pupil program at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology. He was accepted to MIT, anywhere he studied device discipline and engineering. Alfozan remained a proponent of the important throughout his period at OpenAI, calling it the "most suitable admission point" in another translated interview posted on YouTube.
While at MIT, Alfozan interned at Akamai Technologies, SAP, and Microsoft, according to his LinkedIn. On the September podcast, he stated he spent one winter interrupt operating on a 30-megawatt power factory in Ghana.
Before his graduation, Alfozan asked himself a big question: "Should I come back to Saudi Arabia immediately, or should I remain in the United States and continue construction experience?" He stated he fielded multiple offers and decided on Facebook since of its talent density.
In many ways, he fit correct into the Valley's tech culture. He stated that his function example was Elon Musk and trumpeted X as the finest phase for tech professionals. He maintained an energetic GitHub profile, contributing to a assortment of projects. He sent congratulatory notes on social media concerning fundraising rounds and startup launches. He called one founder's post concerning how Alfozan had helped preserve his startup inspiring, saying they "took the idea of vibe coding and pushed it to the extreme."
Missing home
A few years into his Facebook job, Alfozan was homesick.
"How can we contribute to the Kingdom during we're motionless living abroad?" he remembered asking himself on the September podcast. "We were physically in California, but certainly there had to be ways to assistance from a distance."
He and several allies created a nonprofit consulting group, Saudi Silicon Valley, which listed alums of Palantir and Apple in its deck. The group's email was disconnected, and leaders did not react to requests for comment.
Alfozan additionally had a WhatsApp collection conversation alongside concerning a dozen professionals from the Gulf called "Sunday @ 6," he stated in an discussion alongside the Arab Gulf States Institute. That collection met on Sunday nights to conversation innovation in Arabic, he said.
Eventually, Alfozan said, he became a founding engineer at Nash, a Y Combinator-backed startup. He additionally entered the project chief space, becoming a partner at RAED Ventures. Neither institution responded to requests for comment.
In 2025, he took a job at OpenAI. After a twelvemonth in the AI lab, he told the YouTube interviewer that there were so many developments that he couldn't figure them. The product team that he worked on had fair launched its archetypal merchandise that September, he said.
Alfozan appeared in national court on Tuesday, according to a declaration from the Justice Department. While he did not refuse the allegations, Alfozan's attorney cautioned against jumping to conclusions, noting that he was charged alongside violating a national record statute, not alongside stealing commerce secrets or acting as a abroad agent.
"There is no evidence to propose alternatively at this period that has been shared alongside us," stated Pernik, the lawyer. "Where person was delivered is not evidence of anything."
Alfozan's one-way tickets to Saudi Arabia would have been one of many trips. He stated on the September podcast that he returned residence three or four times a year. He additionally stated he advised multiple Saudi startups.
The podcast presenter jumped in, calling Alfozan a extend between the East and the West. "Exactly," Alfozan responded.
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Business Insider tells the stories you desire to cognize concerning the earth of business, technology, and finance
Business Insider tells the stories you desire to cognize concerning the earth of business, technology, and finance
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Henry Chandonnet is a elder newsman on the Business News desk. He writes concerning tech culture, from Silicon Valley's startup category to the mundane AI user. He additionally closely covers Big Tech and the workplace. Henry earlier wrote for Fast Company, anywhere he covered trending tech news. He's written for The Daily Beast, People Magazine, and Vulture.Email Henry at [email protected], attain him on Signal at henrychand.30, or prosecute him on X @HenryChandonnet.
