Situational Awareness Raises $400M After Near Collapse

Situational Awareness, the hedge fund founded by former OpenAI researcher Leopold Aschenbrenner, completed a $400 million investment in an unidentified privately held company on Tuesday. The transaction followed a $100 million investment in the same company made in July.

People familiar with the matter confirmed the two investments but said the fund has not publicly identified the company or disclosed deal terms. The larger investment came days after the fund faced severe margin calls in July.

Assets at Situational Awareness dropped about 78% in July after a wave of selling in AI-related stocks triggered margin calls from the fund’s lenders. To meet those calls, the fund sought outside capital and considered selling stakes in private companies. The fund sold most of its publicly traded equity portfolio to Citadel, which enabled repayment of lenders while allowing the fund to keep ownership of its private holdings.

Situational Awareness has concentrated investments in infrastructure that supports AI computing, including power and data centers and Bitcoin miners moving into AI workloads. A U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing dated May 18, covering positions as of March 31, showed roughly $1.11 billion in holdings across seven Bitcoin mining stocks, including IREN, Core Scientific, Riot Platforms and CleanSpark.

The $400 million infusion is part of the fund’s effort to stabilize its balance sheet and preserve private assets after the July sell-off. Situational Awareness has not issued a public statement identifying the recipient company or providing additional details on the size or structure of the recent investment.