Key facts
- Citadel has acquired the majority of public equity holdings from AI hedge fund Situational Awareness.
- Situational Awareness was founded by Leopold Aschenbrenner, a former OpenAI researcher.
- The fund's strategy focused on companies benefiting from artificial general intelligence.
- Situational Awareness was forced to sell due to margin calls on leveraged positions.
- The fund retained its private portfolio, including a significant stake in Anthropic.
- Other bidders for the public equities included Millennium and Jane Street.
Citadel, the $71 billion hedge fund led by Ken Griffin, has acquired the majority of public equity holdings from the struggling AI-focused investment firm Situational Awareness. The once-$20 billion fund, founded by 25-year-old Leopold Aschenbrenner, was forced to sell its public stocks due to margin calls on leveraged positions.
Situational Awareness, which had previously returned over 400% in the year before July, will retain its private portfolio of AI companies, notably a significant stake in Anthropic, which was last valued at $965 billion. Other bidders for Situational Awareness's public equities included Citadel rival Millennium and investor Jane Street.
Aschenbrenner reportedly invested nearly all of his net worth into the fund, which focused on companies poised to benefit from artificial general intelligence, including AI hardware stocks, power producers, and data infrastructure firms. The fund managed approximately $5.5 billion in U.S. equity exposure.