Saudi Engineer Who Planted Listening Device Had Already Booked One-Way Ticket Home Before Arrest

A Saudi Arabian engineer who planted a listening device in an executive conference room at OpenAI had booked a one-way ticket to Saudi Arabia before his arrest. Prosecutors state that he possessed both the financial means and the motive to flee the United States, and the case is suspected to have ties to the Saudi government.

According to court documents cited by numerous media outlets, Abdulrahman Alfozan—an engineer fired this week for allegedly planting a listening device in a conference room used by executives at the AI ​​giant OpenAI—was arrested by the FBI three days before his scheduled one-way flight to Saudi Arabia. Alfozan, who had been employed at OpenAI since July of last year, was taken into custody on October 9.

Alfozan, 35, has previously stated that he provided technology consulting services to Saudi government agencies. In a recent podcast interview, he spoke enthusiastically about meeting Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (who was Deputy Crown Prince at the time) during the latter’s 2016 visit to Silicon Valley.

In an Arabic-language podcast last month, Alfozan revealed that the Crown Prince had encouraged young Saudis in Silicon Valley to hone their skills at top-tier technology companies before bringing that expertise back to Saudi Arabia. Alfozan, who has also worked at Meta and a high-tech startup backed by Andreessen Horowitz, is listed—alongside Saudi royal Prince Khalid bin Bader Al Saud—as a partner at RAED Ventures, a venture capital firm based in the Saudi capital, Riyadh.

This incident, which bears the hallmarks of espionage, underscores the intense global competition among nations in the development of advanced artificial intelligence. OpenAI is currently competing against other leading AI labs—such as Anthropic and Elon Musk’s xAI—as well as numerous Chinese firms. The U.S. government has identified the development of cutting-edge AI tools as a national security priority.