How Leopold Aschenbrenner built a $45 billion AI hedge fund — and lost most of it in days

Leopold AschenbrennerPhoto: Josh EdelsonTwo years ago, Leopold Aschenbrenner argued he was one of few people in the world who saw the future clearly.In a sprawling, 165-page essay that became required reading in Silicon Valley, the former OpenAI researcher positioned himself as a kind of prophet for the coming age of artificial super intelligence.But this week, the limits of Aschenbrenner's vision were on display when the AI-themed hedge fund he runs — named Situational Awareness, also the title of his viral June 2024 manifesto — ran into the harsh reality of tumbling semiconductor stocks and Wall Street margin calls.At its peak earlier this month, his fund sat atop $45 billion in assets. By Thursday, however, after being forced to offload all of his leveraged stock bets — including hard-hit names like SK Hynix and CoreWeave — to Ken Griffin's Citadel at a discount, the fund's holdings plunged to around $10 billion, according to people with knowledge of the situation.The story of Aschenbrenner's meteoric rise and sudden fall has captivated both Wall Street and tech circles, making him the most high-profile casualty yet of the volatility accompanying the AI boom.A polarizing figure,...