In a bold move that underscores the growing importance of the AI and cryptocurrency ecosystems, Leopold Aschenbrenner, a former researcher at OpenAI, has positioned his hedge fund, Situational Awareness LP, to capitalize on the power and infrastructure behind the AI boom.
Aschenbrenner, who left OpenAI’s superalignment team to launch the San Francisco-based fund, has seen a meteoric rise in assets under management, from $383 million in early 2025 to a reported $5.52 billion in equity positions as of its latest 13F filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund’s portfolio is heavily concentrated in companies that provide the backbone for the AI revolution, including graphics processing unit (GPU) cloud provider CoreWeave, fuel cell and power specialist Bloom Energy, and Intel, among others.
A Strategic Shift in Bitcoin Mining
The fund’s strategy aligns with a significant shift in the Bitcoin mining industry. After the latest halving, which reduced block rewards, large miners are repurposing their high-density, power-rich sites as AI hosting hubs. This pivot treats megawatts and data center space as valuable assets in the new compute economy, rather than just focusing on hashrate. For instance, Core Scientific has signed a series of 12-year high-performance computing hosting contracts with AI cloud firm CoreWeave, while MARA has acquired a 64% stake in French computing infrastructure operator Exaion, expanding into AI and cloud services.
Key Holdings and Strategic Bets
Situational Awareness has built a portfolio that includes substantial positions in Bitcoin miners and related energy infrastructure firms. The fund has taken significant stakes in companies such as IREN, Cipher Mining, Riot Platforms, Bitdeer, and Applied Digital. Notably, the fund disclosed a 9.4% stake in Core Scientific via an amended Schedule 13D, representing 28,756,478 shares with shared voting and disposition power. This position gives the fund a levered bet on CoreWeave’s expansion and Core Scientific’s pivot from pure Bitcoin to AI and high-performance computing.
Shorting Traditional IT Giants
While betting on the winners in the AI infrastructure space, Aschenbrenner is also taking a contrarian view on traditional IT giants. The fund has taken a short position in Indian IT giant Infosys, betting that the rise of large language models and AI coding tools will disrupt the traditional outsourced software services model. This strategic move reflects Aschenbrenner’s deep understanding of the technological shifts reshaping the industry.
Looking Ahead
As the AI and cryptocurrency markets continue to evolve, Aschenbrenner’s approach highlights the importance of infrastructure and energy in the new compute economy. By focusing on these critical components, Situational Awareness LP is positioning itself to benefit from the long-term trends shaping the future of technology. The fund’s success so far suggests that Aschenbrenner’s vision is not just speculative but grounded in a deep understanding of the technological and economic forces at play.
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