Aschenbrenner’s Situational Awareness Tops $20bn AUM
Leopold Aschenbrenner’s hedge fund Situational Awareness has passed $20bn after gains of more than 1,000% since launch and about 270% through May, according to people familiar with the firm.
Situational Awareness, launched in late 2024 by 24-year-old former AI researcher Leopold Aschenbrenner, has grown to more than $20 billion in assets less than two years after its founding, according to people familiar with the firm. The fund has delivered over 1,000% net gains since launch and rose about 270% through May.
The fund’s portfolio is concentrated in companies that develop AI models and the hardware and software that support them. One of the largest disclosed positions is in Anthropic, which represents roughly 20% of the fund’s public holdings. The firm holds private and foreign-listed stakes that do not appear in US filings, including an investment in South Korean memory-chip maker SK Hynix in late 2024 and participation in Anthropic’s February 2025 funding round, when Anthropic was valued at $61.5 billion; later financings increased that valuation.
Performance has been volatile. The fund posted losses in early 2025 after a Chinese startup released a low-cost AI model and triggered a sell-off in semiconductor and AI-linked stocks. The portfolio later recovered as demand for AI infrastructure increased and finished 2025 with about 200% returns. The reported gain of roughly 270% through May contributed to growth in assets under management.
Institutional investors committed capital to the fund, including quantitative trading firm Jane Street. Early backers included Stripe co-founders Patrick and John Collison and technology investors Daniel Gross and Nat Friedman. Jane Street and Situational Awareness have co-invested in venture financings for AI chip startup MatX and cloud provider Fluidstack.
Regulatory filings from the fund are closely watched by retail and professional investors. Trading platforms that let users mirror disclosed positions have amplified market reactions to those filings. In May, shares of renewable equipment maker T1 Energy rose more than 20% in a session after the fund disclosed a new position.
As assets expanded, the fund added industry executives to its leadership team. Recent hires include Niki Webster, formerly of Goldman Sachs, as head of investor relations, and Sven Khatri, who previously worked at Citadel and Goldman Sachs, to oversee treasury strategy.
US regulatory disclosures do not show private-company stakes or foreign-listed holdings, leaving several of the fund’s most successful investments outside public filings and limiting the ability of outside observers to fully track the portfolio.
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