His Wedding Guests Were Arriving—Just as His $45 Billion Fund Was Falling Apart 

When the week began, Leopold Aschenbrenner was preparing for his wedding. The plan was for a multiday celebration in Carmel, a seaside town in Northern California, with the ceremony at a Tuscan-style villa and the send-off at a spa in the forest. There would also be a pre-wedding colloquium to discuss ideas in panels and breakout sessions. The couple’s only request: no gifts.

The 24-year-old investor had amassed a fortune by promising he could see into the future, building a $45 billion investing powerhouse that primarily bought stocks in the AI trade. For months, the holdings of his hedge fund Situational Awareness shot up in value, as did Aschenbrenner’s standing in the upper echelons of San Francisco’s elite.

But by the time guests began to arrive, his fund was unraveling—and Wall Street was closing in. 

Aschenbrenner borrowed too much money to make his AI bets, leaving him at risk as they faltered. With the value of his portfolio tumbling, he scrambled to raise cash to satisfy his lenders, appealing to some of the largest hedge funds and selling billions of dollars in holdings in a fire sale to Ken Griffin’s Citadel.