{"text":[[{"start":19.52,"text":"Situational Awareness, the $20bn hedge fund founded by former OpenAI employee Leopold Aschenbrenner, has sought to raise fresh capital from investors after suffering heavy losses during the recent rout in AI stocks."}],[{"start":32.8,"text":"The fund held discussions with existing investors and lenders in recent days seeking to raise new capital, according to people briefed on the matter. The fund had also offered some investors the option to buy assets in its portfolio, the people added. One of the people briefed on the talks described them as ad hoc, rather than a co-ordinated effort."}],[{"start":52.4,"text":"The capital-raising effort comes as the fund, which Aschenbrenner launched after leaving OpenAI in 2024, has sustained a sharp fall in value amid intense market swings in recent weeks, several people familiar with its performance said."}],[{"start":66.08,"text":"It marks a powerful reversal for Situational Awareness, which posted meteoric returns in the first half of the year, tracking a huge rally in stocks linked to the AI boom."}],[{"start":76.04,"text":"Several people familiar with the matter said that Situational Awareness had used borrowing to magnify its returns, a popular hedge fund strategy that can also amplify losses in a downturn."}],[{"start":87.04,"text":"In a letter sent to investors on July 24 presenting the fund’s half-year results, Aschenbrenner acknowledged that the fund had “not been immune” to the market ructions, particularly in Asia, but argued that the tech sell-off had created some of the most attractive investment opportunities since early 2025."}],[{"start":104.4,"text":"“PS. At times we call out opportunities that seem like a particularly good time to add funds, if you have been waiting for one,” he said in the investor letter, seen by the FT, which was sent in recent days and offered the ability to invest new cash on August 1."}],[{"start":119.06,"text":"The hedge fund had notched blistering returns this year. The firm was up 439 per cent on a net basis for the year as of the end of June, according to the letter, a return that is many times larger than typically seen on Wall Street."}],[{"start":131.48,"text":"Aschenbrenner pointed in the letter to the prospect of major AI developments in the second half of the year, including an expected Anthropic initial public offering as a potential catalyst for a recovery."}],[{"start":143.32,"text":"Situational Awareness did not respond to multiple requests for comment."}],[{"start":148.22,"text":"Aschenbrenner founded the hedge fund after writing an essay titled “Situational Awareness” that detailed how he expected AI to dramatically reshape society in the coming years."}],[{"start":159.1,"text":"Early investors include Stripe co-founders Patrick and John Collison, former GitHub chief executive Nat Friedman and technology investor Daniel Gross. The fund has also received backing from trading firm Jane Street."}],[{"start":173,"text":"The hedge fund has operated with a skeleton staff, with only four investment professionals and a total of eight employees, according to its most recent regulatory filing. Aschenbrenner, who had no prior trading experience before starting the fund, has amassed a huge following on social media, with more than 250,000 followers on X."}],[{"start":192.9,"text":"Some of its largest reported stock positions from its latest regulatory filing in late March have tumbled in recent days. Among the hardest-hit stocks in the fund’s latest disclosure are Oracle and AMD, each down about 20 per cent this month."}],[{"start":207.48,"text":"But other smaller stocks that Situational Awareness has backed have fallen further, such as “neocloud” groups Nebius and Sharon AI, power start-up Bloom Energy and an array of memory companies including Sandisk."}],[{"start":221.04,"text":"The tech-heavy US Nasdaq 100 has fallen 10 per cent so far in July, while South Korea’s Kospi has lost around a third of its value."}],[{"start":228.64,"text":"Situational Awareness sought to maximise the profit from its investments by leveraging its bets on AI companies. It counted several major Wall Street banks as its prime brokers, according to its most recent regulatory filings."}],[{"start":241.96,"text":"Aschenbrenner has until now been lauded in Silicon Valley for his early, aggressive bets on AI-linked companies."}],[{"start":248.82,"text":"Those bets were informed by “publicly-available information, my own ideas, general field-knowledge, or SF-gossip”, according to Aschenbrenner’s posts on his website."}],[{"start":258.48,"text":"“Before long, the world will wake up,” he wrote at the launch of his fund in 2024. “But right now, there are perhaps a few hundred people, most of them in San Francisco and the AI labs, that have situational awareness. Through whatever peculiar forces of fate, I have found myself amongst them.”"}],[{"start":277.04,"text":"Additional reporting by Costas Mourselas in London"}],[{"start":286.92,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1785401900_5454.mp3"}