The Silicon Valley tech landscape is reeling following reports that Giga, a San Francisco-based AI startup, is being targeted in a massive $3 million extortion plot. Varun Vummadi, the Indian-origin Co-founder and CEO of Giga, recently took to social media to reveal that an anonymous group is threatening the company with a “nuclear-level” data leak.

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The extortion attempt came to light when Vummadi shared details of a threatening email sent from a Proton Mail account. The attackers demanded $3 million in cryptocurrency—specifically requesting Bitcoin be converted to Monero (XMR) to ensure anonymity.

The ultimatum was clear: pay the ransom or face a coordinated release of stolen data. The attackers claimed to possess a 70 GB “destruction stack” and warned that the leak would escalate from minor details to “nuclear-level impact,” aimed at landing the founders in jail and making the company “untouchable” for customers.

While Vummadi maintains that the allegations are false and defamatory, the situation is complicated by counter-claims from a former employee. Jared Steele, who briefly served as Giga’s Chief of Staff, has publicly supported the “Giga Files” narrative.

According to Steele and other anonymous sources, the stolen data allegedly contains evidence of:

• Inflated Revenue Numbers: Claims that internal dashboards show significantly lower figures than those reported to investors.
• Ethics Violations: Allegations regarding the bribing of Fortune 500 companies and the hiring of “fake customers.”
• Equity Disputes: Claims that the company cheated employees out of promised equity.
• Toxic Work Culture: Reports of mandatory 12-hour workdays, seven days a week.

Vummadi, an IIT Kharagpur alumnus, has dismissed these claims as “manipulated snippets” taken out of context to damage the firm’s reputation.

In a formal statement, Giga clarified that the data breach has no connection to their core product—AI support agents. The company, which counts major enterprises like DoorDash among its clients, insists it will not succumb to blackmail.

“We want to set the record straight,” Vummadi posted on X (formerly Twitter). “These allegations are being made by a small group who illegally obtained confidential information. We are pursuing legal action and have informed law enforcement.”

The Giga extortion case highlights the growing vulnerability of AI startups to high-stakes cybercrime and internal whistleblowing. As Giga continues to lead the market in AI support agents, the outcome of this legal battle could set a precedent for how tech firms handle large-scale data extortion and public “trial by social media.”

For now, the industry watches closely as regulators—including the SEC and DOJ—are urged by the anonymous group to investigate the company’s financial records.