Situational Awareness seeks capital after AI sell-off amplifies losses
In brief
- Situational Awareness held $20 billion AUM before July's AI stock collapse triggered heavy losses.
- Fund's $1.11 billion Bitcoin miner portfolio included Core Scientific, Riot Platforms, CleanSpark.
- Leveraged positions magnified losses; fund gained 439% after fees through June.
Leveraged exposure to AI infrastructure
The fund had made a significant bet around power and data centers supporting AI, including Bitcoin miners pivoting into AI computing. A March SEC filing showed approximately $1.11 billion in positions across seven Bitcoin miner stocks, including IREN, Core Scientific, Riot Platforms, and CleanSpark. These positions were concentrated in companies betting on infrastructure for artificial intelligence workloads.
The fund's scale made the July downturn particularly painful. Situational Awareness had around $20 billion in assets under management as of June 8, according to the Wall Street Journal. The fund had gained 439% after fees through June—a run that masked the leverage risk embedded in its portfolio.
Capital raise and portfolio sales
The fund has approached investors and lenders for fresh capital and has also offered some investors the option to buy portfolio assets directly. These moves signal the fund is managing liquidity pressures after the sharp reversal in AI equities.
Aschenbrenner, who wrote a series of essays on artificial general intelligence in mid-2024 around the time he launched Situational Awareness, argued in an investor letter that the sell-off had created attractive investment opportunities. He has predicted that AGI machines will outpace college graduates by the end of the decade—a thesis that shaped the fund's conviction in AI infrastructure plays.
