Chip Rout Forces Aschenbrenner’s AI Fund Into Citadel Sale

Former OpenAI researcher Leopold Aschenbrenner built Situational Awareness LP around the thesis that artificial intelligence would drive enormous demand for memory chips, data centers, computing infrastructure and power. Leverage helped turn that view into spectacular gains, but it also left the fund vulnerable to a sudden reversal. Its decision to remove put-option protection while concentrating capital in a handful of AI-infrastructure stocks magnified the liquidity pressure when the sector sold off.

The fund’s 13F, filed on Aug. 14 and covering holdings as of June 30, showed about $20.3 billion of reportable U.S. equities. SanDisk and Micron Technology were its two largest positions at $5.67 billion and $5.57 billion, together accounting for 55.6% of the portfolio. SanDisk fell nearly 47% in July and Micron dropped about 29%. By July 30, Situational Awareness had been forced to sell most of its public-equity holdings to Ken Griffin’s Citadel at a discount.