Former OpenAI researcher Leopold Aschenbrenner used Wall Street loans to make an already enormous bet on AI-linked shares even bigger. At its peak, his investment firm managed more than $30 billion and borrowed tens of billions on top of that.
A June 30 disclosure listed $20.2 billion in public shares. Micron and Sandisk alone accounted for $11.25 billion, more than half of the disclosed value.
In July, shares the fund owned fell while stocks it had bet against rose. Banks demanded more collateral, and Situational Awareness negotiated a rescue in less than 24 hours. It sold most of its public-stock portfolio to Citadel, eliminated its borrowing and kept its stake in AI company Anthropic.
An investor letter said the portfolio lost 67% that month, roughly two-thirds of its value. Earlier gains still left it 80% ahead for the year, and the firm survived.
What the SEC wants
The subpoenas seek the timing of the fund’s trades and its communications with lenders about the money it borrowed. They can compel banks to preserve and produce records, bringing the institutions that financed and executed the wager into the federal inquiry.
The reports name four major bank relationships, Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan, but no public document says which received subpoenas, whom the SEC is investigating or what violation it may be examining; neither the fund nor any bank has been accused of wrongdoing.
Situational Awareness says it is cooperating. The SEC and the banks declined to comment.
Bank loans made the wager larger, and bank collateral demands helped turn falling prices into an emergency sale. The SEC now wants the records from both sides.