Leopold Aschenbrenner vows to rebuild after 67% fund drawdown

The fund, which launched in early 2025 and saw meteoric growth, was forced to offload the bulk of its public equity holdings to Ken Griffin’s Citadel to satisfy margin calls. Aschenbrenner, a former OpenAI researcher, had utilized significant borrowed capital to amplify positions in companies including SanDisk, SK Hynix, and CoreWeave. As these AI-linked stocks plummeted, the fund faced a scenario akin to a bank run, forcing a rapid liquidation of assets to prevent total capital impairment.

Despite the turmoil, the fund remains operational and has retained its stake in Anthropic. Aschenbrenner maintains that the fund is still up roughly 80% for the year, though he has pledged to shift toward a fully-paid-for model for his public book to eliminate future margin risk. The founder accepted full responsibility for the drawdown, promising investors a comprehensive overhaul of his risk management and portfolio oversight to withstand the extreme volatility inherent in the artificial intelligence sector.