Formerly a subordinate of SBF, now in charge of a $5.5 billion AI fund

Author: Azuma

Original Title: SBF’s Little Brother Turned $225 Million into $5.5 Billion in One Year

Have you heard of Leopold Aschenbrenner?

He is one of the hottest names in the current AI investment circle — at 24 years old, his Situational Awareness LP fund had a public holdings size of only $225 million in Q4 2024, but in the disclosed holdings for Q4 2025 last month, that number skyrocketed to $5.5 billion.

Few know that Leopold Aschenbrenner was once part of the crypto world — he previously worked for FTX’s FTX Future Fund team until FTX’s bankruptcy and collapse.

A Doctor’s Family Produces an AI Genius

Leopold Aschenbrenner was born in Germany to a family of doctors.

In 2021, at 19, Leopold Aschenbrenner graduated from Columbia University as the top student, earning dual degrees in Economics and Mathematical Statistics. During his time at Columbia, he co-founded the university’s Effective Altruism (EA) chapter.

“Effective Altruism” was a core principle often cited by FTX founder SBF. Possibly due to shared ideals, Leopold Aschenbrenner joined the FTX Future Fund team in February 2022, a charitable initiative created by the FTX Foundation to promote effective altruism. He worked there until just before FTX’s collapse in November 2022.

In 2023, after leaving FTX, Leopold Aschenbrenner moved to OpenAI, now a leading AI company, joining the Superalignment team led by the renowned Ilya Sutskever and Jan Leike. The team focuses on technological breakthroughs to guide and control superintelligent AI systems.

In April 2023, OpenAI’s internal communication system was hacked, though the company did not publicly disclose this. Leopold Aschenbrenner then submitted a memo to the board criticizing OpenAI’s security measures. He later stated that this memo caused disagreements between the board and management over security issues, and he received a warning from HR.

In April 2024, OpenAI dismissed Leopold Aschenbrenner on suspicion of information leaks. He countered that the so-called “leak” was simply sharing a brainstorming document with three external researchers for feedback. OpenAI claimed the dismissal was unrelated to his security memo, but Leopold Aschenbrenner said someone explicitly told him that the memo was the main reason for his firing. Just a month later, the Superalignment team disbanded, and other prominent AI researchers, including Ilya Sutskever, left OpenAI.

Interestingly, Leopold Aschenbrenner’s conflict with OpenAI isn’t the only issue — his fiancée, Avital Balwit, is now the chief of staff at Anthropic, a major competitor of OpenAI. FTX was also an early major investor in Anthropic…

Leaving the Tech Frontline for Investment

In June 2024, just two months after leaving OpenAI, Leopold Aschenbrenner published a 165-page super paper titled Situational Awareness: The Decade Ahead. The paper predicts the emergence of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), envisions pathways from AGI to superintelligence, discusses four major risks facing humanity, outlines strategies to address superintelligence, and advocates for the principles of “AGI realism.”

Situational Awareness: The Decade Ahead sparked huge discussions in Silicon Valley, boosting Leopold Aschenbrenner’s reputation. Then, in September 2024, he founded a fund of the same name, Situational Awareness LP, serving as Chief Investment Officer, focusing on AI industry investment opportunities.

The initial fund size of Situational Awareness LP has not been publicly disclosed. However, according to reports from WSJ, Fortune, and other mainstream media in mid-2025, the fund’s assets under management (AUM) were around $1.5 billion at that time. LPs included Stripe co-founders Patrick and John Collison, former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman, and well-known investor Daniel Gross.

Based on the 13F filings disclosed by Situational Awareness LP (quarterly reports required by the SEC for funds managing over $100 million), in Q4 2024, the fund’s public holdings totaled only about $255 million. But in the Q4 2025 disclosure released on February 16, 2025, that number had grown to an astonishing $5.5 billion.

Given that Situational Awareness LP was newly established in Q4 2024, it likely had some reserve capital beyond its disclosed holdings of $255 million. Even starting from an estimated total AUM of around $1.5 billion in mid-2025, reaching $5.5 billion in Q4 of the same year at the disclosed level is remarkably fast.

Portfolio Analysis: Still Shadowed by Crypto

The 13F shows 29 major holdings for Situational Awareness LP, detailed below.

As shown, the fund’s bets on AI are not concentrated on the most hyped applications but focus more on upstream infrastructure.

• The top ten holdings account for 86% of the portfolio, indicating high concentration, mainly in energy, computing power, optical communications, and storage.
• The largest position, Bloom Energy, focuses on solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) and electrolysis (SOEC) technology. Driven by the growth in AI data centers, the company’s performance has exceeded expectations, with its stock price rising over tenfold since late 2024.
• Major stocks like Nvidia, Microsoft, Amazon, and Google are absent from the holdings, suggesting a preference for relatively “less popular” targets.
• The only disclosed short position is in Indian software exporter Infosys via options, seemingly betting that developments in Claude Code and Codex will replace traditional IT outsourcing.

Another crypto-related clue is that the fund’s holdings include several Bitcoin mining companies, such as Core Scientific, Cipher Mining, Iren (formerly Iris Energy), and Bitdeer, owned by Wu Jihan.

However, it appears that what the fund is betting on isn’t the direct crypto business of these companies but their transition toward AI computing centers. Amid the rising AI trend and the crypto market’s downturn, more mining firms are leveraging land, computing power, and electricity resources to actively transform. A related article on this trend will be published soon.

Fate’s Divergence, Rebuilding Belief

Looking back at Leopold Aschenbrenner’s career, it’s hard not to think of another young genius with a halo — SBF. Both worked at FTX, believed in effective altruism, and achieved notable success in investing. But after one wrong step, SBF is now behind bars, facing decades of imprisonment; meanwhile, Leopold Aschenbrenner’s life diverged after FTX’s sudden collapse, and luckily, this path seems more suited to him.

Time cannot turn back, and fate never gives a second chance. Some are forever left in the ruins of the old era, while others are forced off their original tracks but open new chapters.

As a member of the crypto industry, what comes to mind now is — the industry is at its most uncertain and fragile moment since its birth. Some leave in disappointment, some hesitate and watch, but others actively embrace new technological waves and narratives. History often repeats itself: when old stories collapse, new stories are born. Rebuilding faith is, in fact, another kind of opportunity.