IITian CEO says his AI startup is being extorted for $3 million with leaked data: 'Threatening to...'

Indian-origin entrepreneur Varun Vummadi, co-founder and CEO of San Francisco–based AI startup Giga, has alleged that his company is being blackmailed for $3 million through the misuse of confidential internal data. In an X post, Vummadi, an IIT Kharagpur alumnus, has claimed that a small group of individuals “illegally obtained” company files and is now demanding payment in cryptocurrency to prevent the release of what he described as “manipulated and defamatory” information.

“They have already posted information on Twitter that is false and defamatory,” Vummadi wrote. “They are threatening to take snippets of this data, manipulate it out of context, and release it to the public with wildly false allegations unless we wire $3M to an anonymous crypto account.”

He also shared a screenshot of an email allegedly sent by the group, which threatened broader disclosure if the demands were not met.

Company reports extortion attempt to law enforcement

Giga said it has notified law enforcement and indicated that it intends to pursue legal action. In a statement, the company said the emails came from an anonymous ProtonMail address and were part of “an extortion and blackmail attempt”.