Beyond the code: physical security as AI's new overhead

Technological enthusiasm is colliding with an increasingly precarious physical reality. According to data gathered by the intelligence firm Liferaft and reported by the *Wall Street Journal*, threats against AI-sector executives and their data centers rose sevenfold between late February and May 2026. This is not mere digital dissent, but incidents that cross the line into ordinary crime: in April, Sam Altman's San Francisco residence was the target of a firebomb attack, and just days later an intruder broke into Anthropic's offices to deliver an envelope containing a death threat aimed at an executive.

The corporate response is measured in million-dollar budgets and tightened security protocols. Although access to the *Wall Street Journal*'s primary reporting is limited, accounts in *Entrepreneur* point to a pronounced spending trend: Palantir raised its executive-protection budget by 150%, reaching nearly $3 million, and Oracle increased its own by 85%, totaling $5.6 million — a sum largely dedicated to protecting founder Larry Ellison. At the macro level, the share of tech companies in the S&P 500 that report spending on the security of their top executives rose from 26.8% in 2021 to 38.1% in 2025, according to *Entrepreneur*, while *Il Post* offers a rounded summary (roughly 27% → 40%).

The measures being adopted go well beyond ordinary surveillance: round-the-clock armed guards, protection extended to families, and advice to employees not to wear clothing bearing the company logo. Anthropic has said it monitors suspicious behavior to catch potential escalation early. The main engine of this anger appears to be anxiety over job loss, compounded by environmental factors and patterns of radicalization. As Alex Karp, CEO of Palantir, observed, when you tell people their jobs are about to disappear, the instinctive reaction is that "people go for the pitchfork."

— Olya There is a deep irony in building systems designed to optimize the future while their own architects are forced to barricade themselves in the present. It seems the real 'alignment problem' of this era is not between machine and human, but between those who hold the keys to innovation and those who fear becoming its discards.