The case highlights growing security concerns around sensitive AI research as companies and governments compete fiercely for the talent and technology that could confer economic and strategic advantages.
Abdulrahman Alfozan, 35, had worked as an engineer at OpenAI since July 2025, the Justice Department said in a statement.
OpenAI discovered the recording device plugged into a USB port on the back of a television in an executive conference room at one of its San Francisco buildings on September 30, according to the department.
The thumb-sized device, which had a microphone and could connect to a camera, was concealed in toilet paper, according to an FBI complaint. It was installed on or about September 28, while its stored data was encrypted and inaccessible. Investigators later found a similar customised device in Alfozan's personal bag.
OpenAI said in a post on X that it used its internal AI models to identify the person responsible for planting the device and trace its origins.
The company said it had evidence the employee intended to place additional recording devices in sensitive areas of its offices to secretly record meetings.
"At this time, we have no indications of this individual inappropriately accessing or exfiltrating model weights, source code, or customer data. The employee was terminated," the company said.
OpenAI referred the matter to the FBI, which is continuing to investigate. The Saudi embassy in the United States did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
"Abdulrahman Alfozan allegedly concealed a covert recording device inside his employer's executive conference room to secretly capture sensitive communications about the company's super intelligence technology," FBI Director Kash Patel said in a statement.
Alfozan also used an AI productivity agent to seek information about meeting-room calendars and capabilities for about a month through September 16, according to the FBI complaint. He has been a legal permanent resident of the US since September 2020.
If convicted, Alfozan faces up to five years in prison, a $US250,000 fine and three years of supervised release.
A LinkedIn profile showed Alfozan studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of California, Berkeley. He previously worked at Meta and Microsoft, it said.
OpenAI said on Friday it fired three researchers after an investigation found they had violated company policies on handling sensitive information.
The researchers, Jasmine Wang, Tomek Korbak and Mikita Balesni, had published a letter detailing the circumstances of their dismissal and arguing that the abrupt firings could create uncertainty among employees and undermine a culture in which researchers could raise safety concerns.
