From Fired Researcher to $13.7 Billion King: How Leopold Aschenbrenner Broke the Hedge Fund World

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16. Riot Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:RIOT)

Situational Awareness LP’s Stake: $142 Million

Riot Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:RIOT) has been a constant feature in the 13F portfolio of Situational Awareness LP since the third quarter of 2025. Back then, this position comprised a little over 3.5 million shares. In the fourth quarter of 2025, the fund increased this stake by 71% to over 6 million shares. Filings for the first quarter of 2026 show that the fund owns 11.5 million shares in the firm, up 86% compared to filings for the previous quarter. Riot operates as a Bitcoin mining company in the United States. It offers comprehensive and critical infrastructure for bitcoin mining and data center services at a range of facilities. Leopold Aschenbrenner is very bullish on Bitcoin mining firms that are leasing out their power for AI compute.

Bears have historically modeled Riot Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:RIOT) as a structurally fragile, single-commodity miner. The Q1 2026 financials fundamentally disrupted that thesis by proving the rapid emergence of a highly profitable, recurring revenue stream. The firm posted total consolidated revenue of $167.2 million for Q1 2026, outperforming Wall Street consensus analyst expectations of $122.26 million by 36.7%. While Bitcoin mining accounted for $111.9 million, the newly broken-out Data Center business segment generated $33.2 million in the opening act. Driven by tenant fit-out services and initial hosting operations, this digital infrastructure division operated at a 91% operating lease gross margin.

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