# Situational Awareness AI Hedge Fund Liquidates to Citadel After July Losses

> Leopold Aschenbrenner's Situational Awareness fund, the most talked-about pure play on the AI boom, has sold its entire public equity portfolio to Ken Griffin's Citadel after a devastating July. The fund touched roughly 5 billion in net asset value early in the month on year-to-date gains of about 450 percent, then shed close to two-thirds of its value as margin calls from Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and Bank of America forced a fire sale. The strategy was concentrated and heavily leveraged, built on the conviction that AI infrastructure would keep compounding. That bet paid off spectacularly on the way up and unwound just as violently when AI stocks stumbled. The firm held on to roughly 0 billion in private positions, including its stake in Anthropic, which is far harder to mark and sell in a panic. This is one of the first times the AI trade has produced a genuine financial blowup rather than a paper gain, and it is a pointed reminder that a narrative this crowded cuts both ways when leverage is involved.

_Section: [Daily AI Updates](https://www.wortins.com/daily-ai) · Source: Axios · Published Saturday, August 1, 2026_

## Wortins' read

Leopold Aschenbrenner's Situational Awareness fund, the most talked-about pure play on the AI boom, has sold its entire public equity portfolio to Ken Griffin's Citadel after a devastating July. The fund touched roughly 5 billion in net asset value early in the month on year-to-date gains of about 450 percent, then shed close to two-thirds of its value as margin calls from Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and Bank of America forced a fire sale. The strategy was concentrated and heavily leveraged, built on the conviction that AI infrastructure would keep compounding. That bet paid off spectacularly on the way up and unwound just as violently when AI stocks stumbled. The firm held on to roughly 0 billion in private positions, including its stake in Anthropic, which is far harder to mark and sell in a panic. This is one of the first times the AI trade has produced a genuine financial blowup rather than a paper gain, and it is a pointed reminder that a narrative this crowded cuts both ways when leverage is involved.

## Source

[Read the full story at Axios](https://www.axios.com/2026/07/30/ai-hedge-fund-situational-awareness-citadel)

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