Struggling Hedge Fund Situational Awareness Pours $400M Into Chip Startup Source Foundry
AI-focused hedge fund Situational Awareness has invested $400 million in chip manufacturing startup Source Foundry, bringing its total stake to $500 million despite recent heavy financial losses.
Situational Awareness, an AI-focused hedge fund, has invested $400 million into Source Foundry, a startup founded by Stanford researchers working to make chip manufacturing faster and cheaper, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. The new investment raises the fund's total stake in Source Foundry to $500 million.
A fund under pressure
Situational Awareness was launched in 2024 by Leopold Aschenbrenner, a former OpenAI researcher who was in his mid-twenties and had no prior trading experience at the time. The fund initially posted strong returns, but it has suffered significant losses in recent months as AI infrastructure stocks declined.
At the end of July, the fund was forced to sell off most of its public equity portfolio to Ken Griffin's Citadel, though it retained its holdings in Anthropic. Its assets under management reportedly dropped from $20 billion to $10 billion over this period.
Despite the financial setbacks, Aschenbrenner still managed to celebrate his wedding recently.
