Leopold Aschenbrenner, the AI researcher whose hedge fund came close to collapsing over the summer, is dipping back into the public markets — this time through options, according to people familiar with the activity.
His firm, Situational Awareness, has been buying options positions in a handful of stocks, including Advanced Micro Devices, Bloom Energy and CoreWeave, sources told CNBC’s David Faber. The trades were placed late last week and early this week, the sources said. Aschenbrenner’s firm has also been active in SK Hynix and SanDisk, they added.
CNBC reported that it was not clear whether Aschenbrenner is raising new money to fund the options positions or drawing on what remains in the fund after a punishing stretch for AI-linked equities.
A steep fall from a summer peak
The activity marks a return to public markets for a fund that saw its assets contract sharply over just a few weeks. Situational Awareness peaked above $45 billion at the start of July, but its assets have since fallen to roughly $10 billion, according to the sources.
The decline followed a rapid selloff in AI-related stocks that Aschenbrenner had been buying with leverage. As those positions lost value, he was forced to unwind his public equity holdings in a fire sale to Ken Griffin’s Citadel in order to stave off a collapse. Not everything was liquidated: the fund retained stakes in private companies, including Anthropic.
The pivot to options is notable for a few reasons. Options allow a fund to take directional exposure without committing the same capital as a straight equity purchase, which could suit a manager working with a smaller asset base and a fresh memory of how quickly leveraged positions can turn. The names involved also cluster around a familiar theme — semiconductors, AI infrastructure and the power and memory suppliers that feed them.
A concentrated set of names
AMD and SK Hynix sit squarely in the chip complex that has driven much of the AI trade. CoreWeave, which rents out computing capacity for AI workloads, has been a focal point for investors looking to play the buildout of data centers. SanDisk and Bloom Energy extend that list into storage and power generation, two areas tied to the electricity and hardware demands of large-scale AI computing.
Whether the options wagers represent a durable return to public markets or a more tactical move is not yet known. Sources declined to say how large the positions are or how they are structured. It is also unclear whether Aschenbrenner plans to re-establish broader equity exposure or is content to express his views through derivatives.
For now, the trades put one of the higher-profile AI investors back in the market just weeks after a rout that reshaped his firm’s balance sheet. The fund’s remaining private holdings, including Anthropic, were untouched by the Citadel sale and remain part of the portfolio.
Source: www.cnbc.com — https://www.cnbc.com/2026/09/11/leopold-aschenbrenners-situational-awareness-is-active-in-options-market-sources-say.html
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, tax, or legal advice. Do your own research and consult a licensed professional before making financial decisions.
