WSJ published an interesting piece on Leopold Aschenbrenner.
Aschenbrenner's rise depended partly on an unusual network spanning the FTX Future Fund, OpenAI, Anthropic and some of Silicon Valley's wealthiest investors despite his lack of professional investing experience.
His reputation for understanding AI earlier than traditional investors became economically powerful enough to help turn a technology thesis into a hedge fund managing $45B.
The same conviction was expressed through roughly $3 of borrowing for each $1 of capital, leaving the fund unable to wait through a severe reversal in AI-linked stocks.
Situational Awareness lost 67% in July and surrendered most of its public portfolio to Citadel, which subsequently disposed of more than 80% of the acquired positions.