Leopold Aschenbrenner, a 24-year-old former OpenAI researcher, has built an AI hedge fund, Situational Awareness, that now manages about $20 billion and gained roughly 270% after fees through May 2025. His investment thesis, outlined in a viral 2024 essay, focuses on the physical infrastructure needed for AI—electricity and computing power—rather than betting on AI companies themselves. The fund's largest public holding is Bloom Energy, a fuel cell maker, and it also owns CoreWeave and converted Bitcoin miner data centers. In a contrarian move, Aschenbrenner has shorted over $1.5 billion in Nvidia and $2 billion in chip stocks, arguing that chip prices already price in perfection while electricity will be the real bottleneck. His single largest position is a private stake in Anthropic, bought in February 2025 when the company was worth $60 billion; by May 2026, its valuation surged to $965 billion after a funding round, now comprising about a fifth of the fund. Jane Street has also invested. However, the concentrated bet carries risks: if AI spending slows or the power crunch eases, the fund could fall as quickly as it rose.

Key facts

• Leopold Aschenbrenner’s fund manages $20 billion, up 270% after fees.
• Fund bets on AI infrastructure like electricity and computing power.
• Holds Bloom Energy, CoreWeave, and converted Bitcoin miner sites.
• Short over $1.5 billion Nvidia and $2 billion chip stocks.
• Largest position: private stake in Anthropic, now worth ~$193 billion.
• Jane Street is also an investor in the fund.

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