Situational Awareness, the hedge fund founded by former OpenAI researcher Leopold Aschenbrenner, has sold most of its publicly traded equity positions to Ken Griffin’s Citadel after sharp losses in recent weeks. The fund retained its private holdings, most notably a stake in Anthropic that Bloomberg values at about $5 billion.
What happened and when
The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that Situational Awareness offloaded the bulk of its public stock portfolio to Citadel following steep declines. Financial Times data cited by news outlets showed the fund returned 439% for the year through June, but those gains were eroded as AI infrastructure stocks fell.
Background on the founder and the fund
Leopold Aschenbrenner, 25, a German-born former OpenAI researcher, started Situational Awareness in 2024 after a year on OpenAI’s “superalignment” team in 2023. He graduated as valedictorian from Columbia University at age 19 after enrolling at 15. OpenAI dismissed him in 2024 for what it described as an improper disclosure of internal information. Afterward, Ilya Sutskever left OpenAI to start his own company, Jan Leike joined Anthropic, and Aschenbrenner launched his hedge fund.
Financial impact and maneuvering
According to Financial Times reporting, the fund’s assets under management reportedly grew to as much as $45 billion at their peak before positions plunged amid a wider sell-off in AI infrastructure investments. Bloomberg reported that after Citadel bought most of the public holdings, Situational Awareness’s assets fell to roughly $10 billion, down from about $20 billion in recent months per an earlier Wall Street Journal report.
The losses were magnified by leverage: the fund used borrowed money to increase its exposure. Among the hardest-hit public holdings were memory-chip producers SK Hynix and Sandisk, clean-energy developer Bloom Energy, and neocloud provider Nebius Group — each down more than 30% over the past month.
Fundraising attempts and investor communication
Despite mounting losses, Aschenbrenner urged investors to view the selloff as a buying opportunity in a July 24 letter seen by Financial Times and invited clients to commit fresh capital starting August 1. Bloomberg reported that the appeal fell short of the commitments the fund had hoped to secure.
Private holdings remain intact
Multiple reports indicate Situational Awareness did not sell its private-company investments. Most notably, it continues to hold a stake in Anthropic that Bloomberg places at about $5 billion. The same reporting said Anthropic was last valued at $965 billion in a Series H round in May and is expected to go public as soon as October, potentially at a higher valuation; proceeds from any future sale of the Anthropic stake could offset some public-market losses.
Other private positions include chipmaker MatX and AI data-center startup Fluidstack, which was reportedly in talks in April to raise a new round at an $18 billion valuation.
Early backers and Citadel’s role
Situational Awareness raised several hundred million dollars at its outset. Early supporters included quant-trading firm Jane Street, Stripe co-founders Patrick and John Collison, and Meta executives Daniel Gross and Nat Friedman.
Citadel’s acquisition of the public positions fits an established pattern: Ken Griffin’s firm often purchases assets when leveraged players are forced to unwind. Citadel itself held similar AI infrastructure bets, suggesting it expects the sector to recover and has the capacity to wait out a downturn.
Conclusion
The sale of most public holdings to Citadel materially reduced Situational Awareness’s public-market exposure and its reported assets under management. Retaining private stakes — especially the Anthropic position — leaves open the possibility that future realizations could recoup a portion of the losses, with outcomes depending on market movements and any potential Anthropic public offering.
Note
TechCrunch reached out to Leopold Aschenbrenner for comment.
