Situational Awareness LP, the AI-focused hedge fund run by Leopold Aschenbrenner, has offloaded its public stock holdings after steep losses tied to a tech sell-off left it facing margin calls tied to its leverage. The Financial Times reported the fund sold a large portion of its equity book, while CNBC and Crypto Briefing reported it exited all of its public positions to a single buyer. Reports differ on whether it is also selling its private stake in Anthropic.
Situational Awareness LP has sold off its public stock holdings after a tech sell-off left the AI-focused hedge fund run by Leopold Aschenbrenner facing steep losses. The Financial Times reported the $20 billion fund rapidly sold a large portion of its public equity holdings. CNBC and Crypto Briefing reported the fund unwound its entire public stock portfolio to a single buyer before Thursday's trading session.
Margin calls drove the sale
The Financial Times reported the fund held crunch talks with multiple investors late Wednesday about selling a significant portion of its holdings. At least three multibillion-dollar hedge funds held talks with Situational Awareness over the past 24 hours to get a deal done, though it remains unclear who agreed to buy the equity positions.
CNBC reported that several of the fund's prime brokers, including Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase, worked with the fund to meet margin requirements. The brokers had been marketing a group of the firm's holdings on both the long and short side before Thursday's start of trading, CNBC reported. Crypto Briefing reported the fund was running leverage reportedly as high as 4x.
Losses mounted as the fund's AI infrastructure holdings, including SK Hynix, declined while short positions in software companies such as Adobe moved sharply against it, CNBC reported. Its largest holdings at the end of the first quarter included Nebius Group, Sandisk, Micron and CoreWeave, and all four of those stocks are down more than 35% this month. Crypto Briefing separately reported the fund's holdings included Riot Platforms and CleanSpark, two of the largest publicly traded Bitcoin miners, along with a position in Bloom Energy.
From 439% gains to a forced sale
CNBC reported the fund grew to as big as $45 billion at the start of July before the losses took hold. The Financial Times reported returns of 439% from the start of the year to the end of June, according to an investor letter.
The fund has operated with a skeleton staff of four investment professionals and eight employees in total, the FT reported. Aschenbrenner had no prior trading experience before starting the fund, according to the Financial Times.
Its private holdings remain separate from the fire sale. CNBC reported the fund had been negotiating to sell its stake in Anthropic, though it was not clear if that deal was completed.
A spokesman for the firm told CNBC that reports it was marketing the Anthropic stake were not accurate. Crypto Briefing reported the fund acquired the Anthropic stake at a valuation near $60 billion and reportedly continues to seek new capital around its private positions.
Sources: Financial Times, CNBC, Crypto Briefing
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