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

Leopold Aschenbrenner, a former OpenAI researcher who gained prominence for his 165-page essay on artificial superintelligence, experienced a dramatic reversal of fortune this week when his AI-focused hedge fund faced significant losses. Situational Awareness, named after his viral June 2024 manifesto, had accumulated $45 billion in assets at its peak earlier in the month but was forced to divest substantially after margin pressures mounted.
The fund’s collapse stemmed from exposure to le