Embattled hedge fund Situational Awareness invests $400M in chip startup Source Foundry

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Summary

AI-focused hedge fund Situational Awareness, founded by ex-OpenAI researcher Leopold Aschenbrenner, invests $400M in chip startup Source Foundry, bringing its total investment to $500M. The fund recently sold most of its public portfolio after steep losses.

The AI-focused hedge fund is still making some big bets.
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# Embattled hedge fund Situational Awareness invests $400M in chip startup Source Foundry | TechCrunch Source: [https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/09/embattled-hedge-fund-situational-awareness-invests-400m-in-chip-startup-source-foundry/](https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/09/embattled-hedge-fund-situational-awareness-invests-400m-in-chip-startup-source-foundry/) In Brief Posted: 1:35 PM PDT · August 9, 2026 ![young man standing in front of the projection reflected stock market](https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/GettyImages.jpg?w=1024)**Image Credits:**Getty ImagesSituational Awareness may have had to sell off the majority of its public portfolio last month, but the AI\-focused hedge fund is still making some big bets\. This week, the fund invested $400 million into Source Foundry, a startup founded by Stanford researchers aiming to make chip manufacturing faster and cheaper,[according to The Wall Street Journal](https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/situational-awareness-bets-400-million-on-stealth-chip-startup-after-crash-02c7374e?st=nJ8LeW&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink)\. That brings its total investment in Source Foundry to $500 million\. Situational Awareness was founded by Leopold Aschenbrenner, a former OpenAI researcher in his mid\-twenties who had no trading experience when he launched the fund in 2024\. Early returns were reportedly strong, but the fund faced steep losses in recent months amidst the decline in AI infrastructure stocks\. At the end of July, Situational Awareness sold off the majority of its public portfolio to Ken Griffin’s Citadel, although[the fund held on to its Anthropic shares](https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/30/ai-hedge-fund-situational-awareness-may-have-sold-its-public-portfolio-but-it-still-has-its-anthropic-shares/)\. Its assets under management reportedly fell from $20 billion to $10 billion\. On the bright side, Aschenbrenner[didn’t let those setbacks get in the way of his wedding](https://www.vanityfair.com/story/anthropic-situational-awareness-wedding?srsltid=AfmBOorB7L34By1SNfIVWCg5DSeUVjdmG9SK4lM0AKfcPZ3MnNL0EcoF)\. ### Newsletters Subscribe for the industry’s biggest tech news ## Related - ![The New Yorker staff writer Jill Lepore speaks onstage at The Hillary Question during The New Yorker Festival 2015 at SVA Theater on October 4, 2015 in New York City.](https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/GettyImages-491300440.jpg?w=544) ## Latest in Fundraising

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