SandboxAQ faces wrongful termination lawsuit from former executive

Robert Bender, the former chief of staff to SandboxAQ CEO Jack Hidary, filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against the company and its chief executive in mid-December. Bender, who began working as chief of staff in August 2024 and ended his tenure in July 2025, alleges he was wrongfully terminated after raising concerns about sexual encounters and misleading financial information. In the lawsuit, Bender alleges that Hidary used corporate resources to “solicit, transport, and entertain female companions.” Bender claims he brought the lawsuit only because his termination was followed by a “malicious scorched earth campaign to destroy his reputation.”

On Friday, SandboxAQ’s legal counsel filed a response denying the allegations. Orin Snyder, a lawyer for SandboxAQ at Gibson Dunn—a prestigious, long-established firm—called the lawsuit “an opportunistic and extortionate abuse of the judicial process.” The company’s response characterized Bender as a “serial liar” and asserted that the company did not make fraudulent disclosures or misuse corporate assets.

The legal battle draws attention to the internal operations of SandboxAQ, an AI quantum computing startup valued at $5.75 billion. The company was spun out of Alphabet, the parent company of Google, in March 2022, where it originated as an experimental, ambitious “moonshot” project. SandboxAQ has raised $1 billion total from prominent investors, including former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who serves as the startup’s chairman. Its funding includes a Series E round raised in April that brought in over $450 million, alongside a $90 million secondary sale, which refers to the sale of existing shares by employees or early investors.

The lawsuit offers a rare public look into internal disputes within a high-profile Silicon Valley firm. Such disputes are typically kept quiet due to private arbitration clauses, which are contractual agreements requiring disputes to be settled outside of public court. Among the unredacted allegations, Bender alleges that Hidary sold stock at a premium based on misleading revenue figures presented to investors. Specifically, Bender alleges that the revenue figures shown to the company’s board were 50% lower than those presented to prospective investors. SandboxAQ’s lawyers have vigorously contested these claims, stating that the plaintiff invented the allegations to manufacture statutory claims and insulate himself from his own misconduct. The allegations also echo a July investigative report by tech publication The Information, which reported on similar internal concerns at the startup.

Why it matters

The lawsuit provides a rare public look into internal allegations at a high-profile AI quantum computing startup, highlighting how private arbitration clauses often obscure employee disputes in the tech industry.