Stocks● Neutral
The $20 Billion Meltdown of AI Wunderkind's Hedge Fund
Leopold Aschenbrenner, the 20-something AI prodigy behind the hedge fund Situational Awareness, saw his firm forced to sell its public stocks to Citadel. The fund's private AI bets remain.
Continue with
The hedge fund Situational Awareness, run by 20-something AI prodigy Leopold Aschenbrenner, was forced to sell most of its public equity holdings to Citadel on Wednesday. The once-$20 billion firm scaled rapidly after launching with less than $1 billion, counting Jane Street, Stripe cofounders Patrick and John Collison, and former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman among its investors.
Aschenbrenner, a German native, arrived at Columbia University at 15, graduated as valedictorian at 19, and joined OpenAI's superalignment team in 2021. OpenAI fired him in 2024, saying he improperly shared internal information. Aschenbrenner denied the account on a podcast: "I did not disclose sensitive information." He attributed the firing to an internal memo about security measures, after which he received a warning from HR and was let go.