Aschenbrenner’s fund hits $13.7B with $8.5B in puts

Leopold Aschenbrenner’s hedge fund, Situational Awareness LP, expanded from a $255 million portfolio in late 2024 to $13.7 billion on the Q1 2026 13F filing dated March 31, 2026. The filing shows a newly reported $8.5 billion notional put-option book concentrated on semiconductor-related names while maintaining large long positions in AI infrastructure and raising exposure to bitcoin miners and data-center power companies.

The largest single line in the filing is a $2.04 billion notional put on the VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH). Nvidia appears as a $1.57 billion notional put covering roughly 8.99 million shares. Other sizable put listings include Oracle, Broadcom, AMD and Micron. Prior quarterly filings showed almost no meaningful option positions; the new put overlay accounts for most of the growth in reported notional value between Q4 2025 and Q1 2026. Reported long common-stock and call holdings were similar in absolute dollar terms to the prior quarter.

The 13F lists option positions at the notional value of the underlying shares rather than the premium paid and does not disclose whether puts are bought or written, nor their strikes or expirations. Because of those reporting rules, the $8.5 billion notional figure overstates the cash required to establish the positions and leaves directional intent unclear in some cases. Micron and Taiwan Semiconductor entries show both calls and puts alongside small stock holdings, a structure more consistent with long-volatility strategies than a simple bearish bet. Intel’s position flipped between quarters: a large call position in Q4 2025 became a put in Q1 2026 with a small residual stock stake.

On the long-equity side, Bloom Energy is the largest holding at about $879 million. CoreWeave and SanDisk are listed among other top common-stock positions tied to AI infrastructure and data-center services. The filing also records increases in crypto-mining exposure: CleanSpark’s stake rose sevenfold, Bitfarms increased by nearly three times, and holdings in Riot and Bitdeer roughly doubled compared with the prior quarter. Three new, smaller long stakes — T1 Energy ($44 million), SharonAI ($18 million) and HIVE Digital ($6 million) — appear in the Q1 report and align with power, data-center and high-performance-computing themes.

Eight names were removed from the portfolio between Q4 2025 and Q1 2026, which freed about $1.1 billion of capital according to the filing. The filing does not identify the specific source of funding for new positions; it records holdings as of the March 31 reporting date. The increase in reported fund size stems mainly from the added options notional rather than large changes in long-stock positions.

Situational Awareness LP was launched after Aschenbrenner published a 165-page essay in mid-2024 on the timing and infrastructure demands of advanced AI. The fund’s Q1 2026 13F is a snapshot of positions at the end of March and may not reflect trades executed after that cutoff. The next quarterly filing, due in mid-August, will show whether the options book or other holdings were adjusted.