The hedge fund of 24-year-old artificial intelligence prodigy Leopold Aschenbrenner saw its assets plummet from $45 billion to $10 billion in less than a month. The giant Citadel rushed to buy up its holdings at a discount.
He presented himself as the "Nostradamus of AI." Leopold Aschenbrenner, a 24-year-old German who had worked at OpenAI and then at the FTX Future Fund, the charitable arm of Sam Bankman-Fried's fraudulent crypto empire, had managed to raise considerable sums to launch his own hedge fund about two years ago. Without any prior experience in investment management.
His strategy relied on leveraged bets on artificial intelligence companies. As long as the sector was rising, the returns were spectacular. Then the prices plummeted, and the fund, named Situational Awareness, followed suit. Its assets, which reached $45 billion at the beginning of July, fell to around $10 billion in a matter of weeks.
The fall was so rapid that the liquidation took place in less than 24 hours. The Citadel fund, managed by Ken Griffin, contacted Aschenbrenner after a direct exchange between the two men, then bought up all the positions at a discounted price, according to a source close to the matter who requested anonymity.
This scenario is reminiscent of episodes already seen on Wall Street and in Silicon Valley, where collective enthusiasm for a promising young investor quickly fades as soon as the markets turn. "Everyone is always looking for the next prodigy," sums up a veteran of the sector. "It keeps happening."
Furthermore, petrol prices in the UK could reach their highest level of the year, with the AA motoring association anticipating an overshoot of the 159,7 pence per litre threshold recorded in May, amid tensions in the Middle East following US strikes against Iran.
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