Leopold Aschenbrenner injects $400 million into AI firm after hedge fund turmoil

Leopold Aschenbrenner, once an OpenAI researcher, committed another $400 million to a private AI company shortly after his hedge fund, Situational Awareness, faced a near-collapse. The fund had already invested $100 million in the same firm the month before, though the specific company was not identified. A rapid decline in tech stocks triggered margin calls, prompting Aschenbrenner to sell large portions of the fund’s public-tech positions to Ken Griffin’s Citadel, using the cash to repay lenders while preserving stakes in private AI ventures.

The fund’s current holdings are estimated at $10 billion, a fraction of their former high. In a note to investors, Aschenbrenner acknowledged the setback, emphasized the steps taken to safeguard the fund, and vowed to apply lessons learned. The portfolio includes AI heavyweight Anthropic as well as smaller firms such as Fluidstack and MatX.