Leopold Aschenbrenner Returns to the Market After Situational Awareness’ Rout With New AI Options Bets

German artificial intelligence researcher and investor Leopold Aschenbrenner is returning to the public markets just weeks after a dramatic selloff in AI stocks nearly brought his hedge fund to its knees.

Aschenbrenner's investment firm, Situational Awareness, has begun buying options tied to several prominent AI and technology stocks, including Advanced Micro Devices, Bloom Energy and CoreWeave, according to CNBC, citing people familiar with the trading activity.

The positions mark a notable return for the closely watched Aschenbrenner after Situational Awareness suffered a stunning rout over the summer. The fund's assets reportedly plunged from more than $45 billion at the beginning of July to roughly $10 billion by the end of that month.

According to CNBC's David Faber, Situational Awareness made the new options trades late last week and early this week. In addition to AMD, Bloom Energy and CoreWeave, the firm has been active in options tied to South Korean memory chipmaker SK Hynix and SanDisk.

Situational Awareness also purchased options linked to the Roundhill Memory ETF, which trades under the ticker DRAM and provides exposure to companies involved in the memory semiconductor industry. The collection of trades suggests Aschenbrenner remains focused on areas closely connected to the massive buildout of AI infrastructure.

AMD is one of Nvidia's biggest challengers in AI accelerators, while CoreWeave has emerged as a major provider of cloud computing infrastructure for AI workloads. Bloom Energy has attracted attention as soaring electricity demand from data centers increases interest in new power-generation technologies.

Memory and storage are another critical piece of the AI infrastructure boom, putting companies such as SK Hynix and SanDisk, as well as the broader DRAM sector, in focus as computing requirements increase.

The new positions are especially significant because of what happened to Aschenbrenner's $45 billion fund in July when a rapid decline in AI-related stocks collided with the fund's use of leverage, forcing Aschenbrenner to unwind public equity positions.

The situation became severe enough that Situational Awareness sold positions to billionaire Ken Griffin's Citadel in what the outlet characterized as a "fire sale intended to stave off a collapse."

By the end of July, the fund's assets had fallen to approximately $10 billion, a decline of more than three-quarters from its early-July peak. Situational Awareness did not liquidate everything. The hedge fund retained investments in private companies, including AI startup Anthropic, according to CNBC.

The decision to use options as Aschenbrenner returns to public markets could attract particular attention because options allow investors to gain significant exposure to movements in an underlying stock without necessarily purchasing the shares outright.

Depending on how the trades are structured, however, options can also introduce substantial risk and potentially amplify losses. The outlet said it remains unclear how Situational Awareness is financing its latest market activity.