Aschenbrenner's 439% AI Fund Blew Up in Days

Leopold Aschenbrenner's Situational Awareness fund — up 439% this year on leveraged bets on AI hardware — was forced to liquidate its public equity portfolio this week after a reported 67% July loss, one of the fastest hedge fund blowups on record. Citadel reportedly stepped in with a deal that helped stem a broader AI-stock selloff, and the fund kept its private Anthropic stake, which wasn't part of the forced unwind. The FT and WSJ corroborate the losses; the Citadel role, the 'fastest blowup' claim, and the wedding-timing detail remain unconfirmed. The episode's read: being right about the AI trend and surviving the trade are different things — the direction was right, the leverage was the risk.

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AI-focused hedge fund Situational Awareness implodes a ...