Leopold Aschenbrenner
Leopold Aschenbrenner founded Situational Awareness LP in 2024 after being fired from OpenAI's Superalignment team over an alleged information leak, which he disputes. A Columbia University valedictorian at age 19, he published a widely-read 165-page essay titled 'Situational Awareness: The Decade Ahead' predicting AGI by 2027, which became the intellectual foundation for the fund.
Backed by Patrick and John Collison (Stripe), Nat Friedman, and Daniel Gross, the fund grew from $383 million to over $5 billion in US equity exposure in under a year. The fund posted +47% returns in the first half of 2025, betting heavily on AI infrastructure including semiconductors, power generation, data centers, and Bitcoin miners.
You can see the future first in San Francisco. Everyone is now talking about AI, but few have the faintest glimmer of what is about to hit them.
— Leopold Aschenbrenner, Situational Awareness LP