AI Hedge Fund Situational Awareness Sells Public Holdings to Citadel, Keeps Anthropic Stake

The Wall Street Journal reported that Situational Awareness, a hedge fund formed by former OpenAI researcher Leopold Aschenbrenner, has sold the majority of its public stock portfolio to Ken Griffin's Citadel following steep losses over the past month. Aschenbrenner, a 25-year-old German-born former OpenAI researcher, had no prior trading experience before launching the fund in 2024. He gained prominence for his investment thesis on AI infrastructure, arguing that scaling AI would require major build-up in semiconductors, compute, memory, and energy infrastructure. The fund returned 439% for the year through June, but recent losses were amplified by leverage as AI infrastructure equities fell. Hardest-hit stocks included SK Hynix, Sandisk, Bloom Energy, and Nebius Group, all down more than 30% in a month. After Citadel bought the bulk of the holdings, Situational Awareness's assets fell to roughly $10 billion, down from about $20 billion. The fund did not sell its private investments, notably retaining a stake in Anthropic valued at $5 billion, which is expected to appreciate as Anthropic is preparing for an IPO at a potentially higher valuation. Other private investments include chipmaker MatX and AI data center startup Fluidstack.