Situational Consciousness, the hedge fund based in 2024 by ex-OpenAI researcher Leopold Aschenbrenner, has approached traders and lenders for contemporary capital after struggling heavy losses within the current synthetic intelligence inventory sell-off, the Monetary Occasions reported Thursday.
The fund, which the Wall Road Journal mentioned had round $20 billion in belongings beneath administration as of June 8, has additionally supplied some traders the choice to purchase portfolio belongings, in accordance with the FT, citing folks briefed on the discussions and a July 24 investor letter.
The scale of the losses and quantity sought weren’t disclosed. Aschenbrenner’s fund had gained 439% after charges by way of June, in accordance with the letter, however the FT mentioned borrowing elevated the scale of the fund’s bets, driving up losses when AI shares collapsed throughout July’s market rout. Aschenbrenner additionally reportedly argued within the letter that the sell-off had created engaging funding alternatives.
Cointelegraph beforehand reported that the fund had made an enormous wager in its portfolio across the energy and information facilities supporting AI, together with Bitcoin (BTC) miners pivoting into AI computing. A submitting with the US Securities and Change Fee in March confirmed about $1.11 billion in positions throughout seven Bitcoin miner shares, together with IREN, Core Scientific, Riot Platforms and CleanSpark.
Aschenbrenner wrote a sequence of essays on synthetic common intelligence in mid-2024 across the similar time he launched his Situational Consciousness fund. In it, he predicted that AGI machines will outpace school graduates by the top of the last decade.
Cointelegraph contacted Situational Consciousness for remark however had not obtained a response by publication.
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