Hollywood, tech executives ramp up security spending amid threats

Hollywood and Silicon Valley executives are pouring millions of dollars into private security as threats against corporate leaders climb, a trend security consultants say accelerated sharply after the 2024 killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

The Hollywood Reporter found that security spending across the industry has been rising at double and triple past rates, naming OpenAI, Meta, Warner Bros., Fox, Netflix, Apple and Comcast among the companies boosting protection for CEOs and other high-ranking officials.

The shift accelerated after Luigi Mangione fatally shot Thompson on a Manhattan sidewalk in December 2024. Mr. Mangione pleaded guilty last month to federal stalking charges in the killing, admitting in court that he tracked Thompson to a UnitedHealthcare investor conference and shot him. He is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 18, 2026.

A survey by Goldman Sachs Ayco, the bank’s financial planning affiliate, found that the share of companies providing personal security for their CEOs jumped from 17% to 27% over two years, a 59% increase, while cybersecurity protections for executives more than tripled since 2021. Jonathan Barber, the firm’s head of compensation and benefits, said security spending is “inching back” toward levels not seen since the early 2000s.

Tech firms have been especially aggressive. Separately, Allied Universal said its round-the-clock executive security business grew 30% in the two months after Thompson’s death, while ad hoc security ordered for executive travel spiked 300%. A related Allied Universal poll of 620 chief security officers found tech companies reported the highest threat levels of any industry, with 66% saying violent threats against their executives had increased, compared with a 46% average across all U.S. firms.

Corporate boards have moved to formalize the spending. Corporate intelligence firm S-RM cited data from executive compensation firm Equilar showing that 38% of S&P 500 companies paid for executive security in 2025, up from 24% the year before, with the median company boosting its security budget 136% year over year.

The Security Executive Council has called Thompson’s killing “an event that significantly influenced public and corporate perceptions of executive-directed violence.” Analysts point to a wider climate of hostility toward business leaders, fueled in part by online sympathy for Mr. Mangione that has persisted even after his guilty plea.

Security consultants also note that the threat landscape has grown more complex than in years past. Corporate security experts told Fortune that artificial intelligence tools now make it far easier for disgruntled employees, customers or activists to compile detailed “targeting dossiers” on executives, including their routines and their families’ whereabouts.

Whether the surge in spending will ease is an open question. In the health insurance sector specifically, more than a third of the largest U.S.-listed insurers increased executive security spending after Thompson’s death, and industry analysts say those budgets have stayed elevated well into 2026 rather than receding with the news cycle — a pattern they describe as a structural shift in perceived risk rather than a temporary reaction.