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Wall Street prodigy loses billions just before tying the knot
©Robb Miller via Unsplash
It was supposed to be a dream week for Leopold Aschenbrenner (24), the young Wall Street prodigy who, with his AI fund Situational Awareness, posted a whopping 439 percent profit in just half a year. Instead of celebrating, a financial bloodbath unfolded this week: his fund lost an estimated tens of billions and was forced to sell nearly all of its public equity positions.
Aschenbrenner, a German who graduated from Columbia University at age 19 and previously worked at OpenAI, founded his fund in 2024. He bet big on the AI infrastructure boom—data centers, memory chips, energy—with positions in companies such as SK Hynix, Micron, and Nebius. At the same time, he shorted traditional software companies such as Adobe. Using borrowed money as leverage, his fund grew to about $45 billion by early July, according to CNBC.
Turnaround
Over the past month, however, the tide turned. Tech stocks took a beating. The Nasdaq lost about 10 percent, SK Hynix and other chip stocks plummeted, and Nebius briefly lost nearly half its market value. Due to the leverage, losses piled up rapidly. Major banks such as Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, and Bank of America demanded additional collateral (margin calls). When Aschenbrenner was unable to come up with the funds, only one option remained: a forced sell-off. According to multiple sources, nearly the entire public share portfolio—both long and short positions—was sold in a single transaction to Ken Griffin’s leveraged fund Citadel, with the support of the banks involved. The fund reportedly lost about 67 percent in July but is still well in the black for 2026. One major consolation: Aschenbrenner still holds a large private position in Anthropic, OpenAI’s AI competitor, estimated at around $5 billion.
The sell-off comes at a remarkable time. Aschenbrenner is set to marry Avital Balwit, an Anthropic employee, this weekend. For guests at the wedding reception, there will certainly be more than enough to talk about.
©Robb Miller via Unsplash - Illustrative image.