The $24 billion hedge fund founded by former OpenAI researcher Leopold Aschenbrenner is unwinding many of its trades after big losses on artificial intelligence stocks and a bad bet against software stocks left it scrambling to raise cash, according to people familiar with the matter.

Situational Awareness has sustained significant losses in recent weeks as its portfolio of AI infrastructure investments such as SK Hynix declined while short positions in software companies such as Adobe moved sharply against it, the people said.

Several of the firm's prime brokers — including Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase —have been working with the fund as it seeks to meet margin requirements or reduce positions in an orderly fashion, according to people familiar with the discussions. The brokers have been marketing a group of the firm's holdings on both the long and short side for sale prior to today's start of trading, according to people familiar with the situation.

The situation remained fluid. It couldn't be determined whether the firm was satisfying its margin calls through negotiated asset sales or whether a broader liquidation of its portfolio was underway.

The fund has also been attempting to raise liquidity by marketing stakes in privately held companies, according to people familiar with the matter. Those efforts include an investment in Anthropic. The size of the position being offered couldn't be determined, though people familiar with the process said prospective buyers had expressed interest in purchasing part or all of the stake.

Situational Awareness did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The turmoil is an early and potentially significant test of the investment thesis that made Aschenbrenner one of the most closely watched figures in the AI trade. The 25-year-old built the firm around the idea that increasingly powerful AI systems would require a vast expansion of chips, memory, data centers and electricity generation. A forced unwinding by the fund could add pressure to some of the same companies that benefited most from investor enthusiasm for that build-out.

Aschenbrenner became prominent in technology and investing circles after publishing a series of essays in 2024 arguing that rapid advances in artificial intelligence would require an enormous expansion of computing power, advanced semiconductors, memory and energy infrastructure. Those ideas became the intellectual foundation for Situational Awareness after he left OpenAI.

Aschenbrenner graduated from Columbia University as valedictorian at the age of 19 before joining OpenAI's Superalignment team. He was fired in 2024 over what the company described as an improper disclosure of internal information. Aschenbrenner has disputed that characterization, saying he shared a largely nonconfidential planning document with outside researchers for feedback, and has said his dismissal followed tensions over warnings he raised about OpenAI's security practices. OpenAI has said those concerns were unrelated to his departure.

Aschenbrenner is engaged to Avital Balwit, the chief of staff for Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, according to an October profile in Fortune, which cited a Situational Awareness LP spokesperson.

The size of the fund's losses, the amount it was seeking to raise and the extent of any asset sales couldn't immediately be determined.