Leopold Aschenbrenner's hedge fund, Situational Awareness LP, is seeking new funding after losses stemming from a July 2026 selloff in AI-related equities, the Financial Times reported on July 30. The fund is known to manage roughly $20 billion, a figure that predates the July rout.
Launched by Aschenbrenner after his departure from OpenAI in April 2024, Situational Awareness has contacted existing investors and lenders to request fresh capital. According to the Financial Times, some investors were presented with the option to purchase portfolio assets directly from the fund as part of those outreach efforts.
Publicly traded names in the fund's disclosed long book that were cited as being particularly affected by the selloff include Bloom Energy, CoreWeave and Nebius. Those AI infrastructure positions were described as having been hit hard during the market decline.
Situational Awareness's rapid reversal in fortunes highlights the risks of concentrated exposure to a single thematic trade. The fund had been reporting strong performance earlier in 2026, rising by approximately 439% after fees through the end of June. That strong run, concentrated in AI-related infrastructure, left the fund vulnerable when sentiment shifted.
Regulatory filings for the first quarter of 2026 provide additional detail on the fund's positioning. The fund's Q1 2026 13F showed roughly $13.68 billion in reported notional exposure, including approximately $8.46 billion in put exposure. The filings indicated a long book focused on power, AI compute and bitcoin miners.
The Q1 disclosures also documented a set of specific portfolio moves that underline the breadth of the fund's AI-adjacent infrastructure bets. In Q1 the fund added a new $43.9 million position in T1 Energy, increased its stake in Bitdeer Technologies by 92.4%, acquired 3.39 million shares of HIVE Digital Technologies, and trimmed its Solaris Energy Infrastructure holding by 40.8%.
In a letter to investors dated July 24, the fund characterized the broader technology selloff as a buying opportunity and identified a potential Anthropic IPO as a possible future catalyst for the sector. That letter, as reported, indicates that Aschenbrenner remains constructive on AI infrastructure despite the drawdown.
"PS. At times we call out opportunities that seem like a particularly good time to add funds, if you have been waiting for one," the letter closed, according to the Financial Times.
Situational Awareness is not unique in confronting margin and financing pressures. Major banks including Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase have issued margin calls to hedge funds holding highly concentrated AI positions, demanding additional collateral to maintain existing leverage.
Barclays' head of U.S. equity strategy, Venu Krishna, summarized the market backdrop by highlighting three focal points: financing uncertainty, corporate capital expenditure expansion, and pressure on big tech free cash flow. Those three issues align closely with the investment thesis around AI infrastructure and help explain why a concentrated fund built on that thesis experienced outsized losses when market sentiment shifted.
Certain key details remain unclear. The precise magnitude of Situational Awareness's drawdown has not been publicly disclosed. It is also unknown whether any lenders or investors have agreed to provide the fresh capital the fund has sought since its approaches. The $20 billion assets under management figure predates the July selloff, and the current net asset value has not been confirmed.
Additional open questions include whether any portfolio-asset sales to investors have been completed and, if so, at what prices relative to net asset value. The timing of a potential Anthropic IPO, which the fund described as an important sector catalyst, is also unspecified. How quickly that listing might occur and whether it could act as a stabilizing influence for AI infrastructure equities will be closely watched by investors considering participation in any capital raise from the fund.