Leopold Aschenbrenner’s Situational Awareness fund loses $30B

Leopold Aschenbrenner, the chief investment officer of the Situational Awareness fund, saw his $45 billion hedge fund lose approximately 67% of its portfolio value in a single month. The collapse was driven by massive losses in two primary holdings: a $5.7 billion stake in SanDisk and a $5.6 billion stake in Micron Technology.

Following a sharp decline in share prices—SanDisk fell 47% and Micron dropped 29% in July—the fund faced margin calls. This forced a fire sale of billions of dollars in holdings to Ken Griffin’s Citadel. Other significant losses included Bloom Energy, which accounted for nearly 10% of the portfolio and fell 31% during the same period.

Aschenbrenner, a German artificial intelligence researcher, recently founded the firm with a focus on Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), backed by investors including Patrick Collison, John Collison, Nat Friedman, and Daniel Gross.