meanwhile, in other news:
wunderkind pisses away $35,really, really, really LA-arge.........
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How Leopold Aschenbrenner built a $45 billion AI hedge fund and lost most of it in daysPublished Fri, Jul 31 202610:44 AM EDTUpdated Fri, Jul 31 20264:19 PM EDT
Points- Former OpenAI researcher Leopold Aschenbrenner's AI hedge fund, Situational Awareness, collapsed from $45 billion to around $10 billion in assets on falling semiconductor stocks and mounting margin calls.
- Driven by reported leverage of up to 400%, the 20-something manager was forced to sell off all his leveraged public stock bets including hard-hit names like SK Hynix and CoreWeave to Ken Griffin's Citadel at a discount.
- The crash marks a dramatic turn for Aschenbrenner, who launched the fund after gaining Silicon Valley fame with his 2024 AI manifesto, drawing scrutiny from critics over his lack of money management experience and his past ties to FTX.
Two years ago, Leopold Aschenbrenner argued he was one of few people in the world who saw the future clearly.In a sprawling, 165-page essay that became required reading in Silicon Valley, the former OpenAI researcher positioned himself as a kind of prophet for the coming age of artificial super intelligence.
But this week, the limits of Aschenbrenner's vision were on display when the AI-themed hedge fund he runs named Situational Awareness, also the title of his viral June 2024 manifesto ran into the harsh reality of tumbling semiconductor stocks and Wall Street margin calls.
At its peak earlier this month, his fund sat atop $45 billion in assets. By Thursday, however, after being forced to offload all of his leveraged stock bets including hard-hit names like SK Hynix
and CoreWeave
to Ken Griffin's Citadel at a discount, the fund's holdings plunged to around $10 billion, according to people with knowledge of the situation.
The story of Aschenbrenner's meteoric rise and sudden fall has captivated both Wall Street and tech circles, making him the most high-profile casualty yet of the volatility accompanying the AI boom.
A polarizing figure, his online followers saw Aschenbrenner a Columbia University valedictorian at age 19 as a genius of the next big thing and followed his fund's quarterly filings for clues on hot AI stocks.
Before this month's decline, Situational Awareness racked up gains of more than 1,000% since inception, The Wall Street Journal reported last month. The Journal noted Aschenbrenner was just 24 years old.
Others on Wall Street, including former traders at global investment banks, noted that in light of reports Situational Awareness used as much as 400% leverage, the collapse wasn't shocking.
"A lot of people saw this blow-up as a matter of not if, but when," said Jerry Diao, who runs a Wall Street coaching firm. "Maybe his views on AI are correct in the long run, but in the public markets, you have to be prepared for the short-term."
The hedge fund didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from CNBC.
Earlier this week, before the sale to Citadel, about two-thirds of Situational Awareness holdings were in long and short positions in public equities, according to one source. The rest were stakes in private companies, dominated by a multibillion-dollar Anthropic investment, the person said.
CNBC's sources spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss nonpublic details.
The near-collapse of Situational Awareness coincides with the hedge fund manager's wedding, set for this weekend, sources told CNBC's David Faber. Aschenbrenner is engaged to Avital Balwit, chief of staff for Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, according to a Fortune profile.
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/31/leopold-aschenbrenner-situational-awareness-fund-fire-sale.html<<
- UF
pro ecclesia, pro javelina