Leopold Aschenbrenner’s AI-focused hedge fund Situational Awareness faced acute pressure in July 2026 after leveraged bets on semiconductor and infrastructure stocks triggered margin calls, prompting a discounted sale of most public holdings to Citadel while preserving key private positions including a multibillion-dollar Anthropic stake. In a late-July investor letter, Aschenbrenner framed the rout as a buying opportunity and invited existing backers to commit fresh capital starting August 1, shifting the vehicle toward a hybrid public-private model with continued deployment into early-stage AI hardware such as the $500 million total commitment to chip-manufacturing startup Source Foundry. Traders are watching for confirmation of new inflows, Anthropic’s IPO timeline, or further regulatory or competitive moves in the AI supply chain that could stabilize or further stress the fund’s positioning.