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Hedge fund boosted Micron and Sandisk before July AI selloff
Micron and Sandisk together made up about a quarter of the fund’s net assets as of June 30, and the July decline reportedly contributed to losses that pushed the fund to sell public equities.
Situational Awareness significantly increased its exposure to memory-chip stocks Micron Technology and Sandisk ahead of last month’s sharp selloff in AI-related equities, according to portfolio disclosures cited by Bloomberg.
The report said the highly leveraged hedge fund, founded by former OpenAI researcher Leopold Aschenbrenner, held around $11 billion in combined positions in Micron and Sandisk as of June 30, with the two names representing roughly a quarter of net assets at the time.
In the second quarter, the fund also reportedly reduced options positions tied to several major AI beneficiaries, including Nvidia, Broadcom and Advanced Micro Devices. Those adjustments came shortly before a severe reversal in semiconductor and AI-related stocks.
Micron fell about 29% during the July selloff, while Sandisk plunged 47%, putting pressure on a portfolio that had built substantial semiconductor exposure, the report said. It added that the sharp decline ultimately forced the fund to sell public equities after technology losses accelerated, and that Citadel later acquired a substantial portion of Situational Awareness’s AI-related stock holdings.