From CNBC · John Melloy · · 1m 20s
The AI fund that blew up is back, buying options
Two months after a fire sale wiped out most of his fund, Leopold Aschenbrenner is trading AI stocks again.
In brief
Two months after a fire sale wiped out most of his fund, Leopold Aschenbrenner is trading AI stocks again. Situational Awareness is placing options bets on AI hardware names again, but nobody knows whose money is funding them. Originally reported by CNBC.
He's trading again
Leopold Aschenbrenner, the AI researcher whose hedge fund nearly died over the summer, is back in the market. This time he is using options.
AMD, Bloom, Coreweave
Situational Awareness has been buying options in Advanced Micro Devices, Bloom Energy and Coreweave, sources told CNBC's David Faber.
Last week and this one
The positions went on late last week and early this week. He was also active in SK Hynix and SanDisk, plus options on the Roundhill Memory ETF.
“The moves were made late last week and early this week, the sources said.”
From $45 billion to $10
The fund peaked above $45 billion at the start of July. Assets are now around $10 billion, a drop of roughly 78% in two months.
The Citadel fire sale
A fast July selloff in the AI stocks he was buying with leverage forced him to unwind his public positions to Ken Griffin's Citadel to avoid collapse.
Whose money is this
It is unclear whether new investors are funding the trades or whether he is using what survived the rout. The fund kept private stakes, including Anthropic.
What to remember
Situational Awareness is placing options bets on AI hardware names again, but nobody knows whose money is funding them.
