Leopold Aschenbrenner’s Hedge Fund Sheds Public Stock Portfolio

Situational Awareness, the high-profile hedge fund founded by former OpenAI researcher Leopold Aschenbrenner, has offloaded the majority of its public stock portfolio to Ken Griffin’s Citadel. The move follows a bruising month for the fund, as leveraged bets on AI infrastructure faced a sharp market correction.

Business Faces·July 31, 2026·reads: 1,006

The 25-year-old Aschenbrenner, who gained notoriety for his bullish thesis on AI compute and energy needs, saw his fund’s assets crater from a $45 billion peak to roughly $10 billion. Leverage, while previously a driver of the fund's 439% annual return through June, exacerbated losses as core holdings—including SK Hynix, Bloom Energy, and Nebius Group—plummeted over 30% in a single month. Despite an attempt to solicit fresh capital in July, the fund failed to secure the necessary commitments to stabilize its positions.

Citadel’s acquisition of these assets mirrors its historical strategy of absorbing positions from over-leveraged players. However, Aschenbrenner’s firm retains its private equity portfolio, most notably a stake in Anthropic valued at $5 billion. With Anthropic potentially eyeing a public offering as early as October, those private holdings could provide a critical financial buffer. The fund also maintains investments in chipmaker MatX and data center startup Fluidstack, keeping its exposure to the AI sector intact even as its public market influence wanes.