A leveraged AI fund run by a 24-year-old former OpenAI researcher has become the latest casualty of the AI stock sell-off. Leopold Aschenbrenner's fund, called "Situational Awareness," sold most of its public stock positions to Citadel after the market turned — a stark reversal for a portfolio that had soared 439% in just six months.
The fund had roughly $16 billion in public stocks before the trades, heavily concentrated in AI supply-chain names like SK Hynix, CoreWeave, and Nebius. It had borrowed money to amplify those bets. When the AI rally cracked, the fund needed to raise capital or unload assets. It chose the latter. CNBC reported the fund liquidated all of its public stocks, while Reuters and The Wall Street Journal said it sold most of the positions.