--- title: "Feds Investigating Wall Street Bro After His AI Hedge Fund Imploded Spectacularly" description: "The SEC is investigating the spectacular near implosion of Situational Awareness, the once much-hyped AI hedge fund." date: "2026-08-25" modified: "2026-08-25" authors: - name: "Frank Landymore" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore" url: "https://futurism.com/future-society/sec-investigation-ai-fund-imploded" categories: - "Finance" - "Future Society" --- # Feds Investigating Wall Street Bro After His AI Hedge Fund Imploded Spectacularly ![A screenshot of a podcast episode with Leopold Aschenbrenner.]() *Dwarkesh Patel Podcast via YouTube / Futurism* The spectacular saga around Situational Awareness isn't over yet. The once mega-hyped AI hedge fund, founded by 24-year-old Leopold Ashenbrenner, [nearly imploded last month]() after it lost [over two-thirds of its value]() during a mass tech sell-off, wiping out billions of dollars of investor money. Now, the Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating its catastrophic reversal of fortunes, sending subpoenas to the banks that handled and fronted the money for its disastrous bets, the [*New York Times* reports](), citing anonymous sources. The subpoenas demanded details on the timing of the fund's trades and for its communications with the bank about the money it was borrowing. Situational Awareness used the borrowed money, called leverage, to buy shares in the AI stocks it was investing in, which boosted its returns but exposed it to even greater losses when those assets hit a downturn. As it stands, Situational Awareness hasn't been accused of any wrongdoing, and it's possible that the investigation won't lead to any action or punishments such as fines being taken against it. In a statement, the fund framed the SEC's subpoenas as a matter of course. "It is to be expected that regulators would closely examine any funds that are high profile, produce significant returns or have particularly dramatic drawdowns," a spokesperson told the *NYT*. "We are a highly regulated business and will cooperate to the fullest extent with any regulatory request." Situational Awareness's near implosion became a symbol of heedless AI optimism — and a [warning sign of the industry's precarious foundations.]() Its founder Aschenbrenner was a former OpenAI researcher who had no investment experience before launching the fund, but generated cultish hype by essentially telling AI investors what they wanted to hear: that the tech would bring endless gains. At its peak, it managed assets worth $45 billion in total. But its all-in bets on exclusively AI stocks — and hedges against industries that some thought would be outmoded by AI such as software — caused it to tank when the market hit a downturn. The [*Financial Times* found]() that the fund operated with a skeleton staff of only four investment professionals and eight employees overall. The fund was only spared a total implosion by selling the majority of its assets to the investment firm Citadel — marking "one of the largest and most sudden stock transactions in Wall Street history, according to the *FT*. **More on AI:** [*Tech CEO’s Ridiculous Excuse Falls Apart in Court, Sentenced to Prison*]() ## Author At Futurism, my work has often centered on bringing a sense of clarity and insight to complex topics ranging from the regulation of emerging technologies to the esoteric ideologies of Silicon Valley executives, while striving not to lose the poetic sense of awe inspired by often-obscure fields like astrophysics and quantum computing. I broke the story of CNET using AI to produce articles that turned out to be riddled with factual errors and plagiarism — a dam-breaking inflection point, as I've reported, that's inspired copycats and endless discourse while beguiling stakeholders ranging from tech giants to purveyors of spam around the web. My work at Futurism has been cited by publications including CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, Vice, Gizmodo, Engadget, the Verge, and Vanity Fair. I grew up in locales ranging from India to China, and now live in the exotic suburbs of Virginia. In my free time, I'm an avid reader of weird sci-fi literature, an aficionado of East Asian cinema, and, regrettably, a relapsed gamer. Allegedly, I’m working on a debut novel, currently untitled. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()