SBF's Protege Turns $225 Million into $5.5 Billion in One Year
Leopold Aschenbrenner, a 24-year-old former member of FTX’s Future Fund team and later an OpenAI researcher, has become one of the most talked-about figures in AI investing. His fund, Situational Awareness LP, grew its publicly disclosed holdings from $225 million in Q4 2024 to $5.5 billion by Q4 2025—an extraordinary surge in just one year.
After graduating top of his class from Columbia University, Aschenbrenner worked at FTX until its collapse. He then joined OpenAI’s Superalignment team but was fired in 2024 following internal disputes over AI safety. Shortly after, he published a influential 165-page essay, "Situational Awareness: The Decade Ahead," which laid the groundwork for his AI-focused investment fund.
Situational Awareness LP’s strategy is highly concentrated, with 86% of its portfolio in its top ten holdings. The fund avoids popular AI application plays, instead targeting upstream infrastructure—especially energy, computing, optical communications, and storage. Its largest position is in Bloom Energy, whose stock has surged over 10x since late 2024. The fund also holds several Bitcoin mining companies, including Core Scientific and Bitdeer, betting on their pivot to AI compute rather than crypto.
Aschenbrenner’s trajectory mirrors—yet diverges from—that of SBF, his former FTX associate. While SBF faced legal downfall, Aschenbrenner repositioned himself at the forefront of AI investing, turning disruption into opportunity.
marsbit03/05 07:31