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

In this article, we discuss From Fired Researcher to $13.7 Billion King: How Leopold Aschenbrenner Broke the Hedge Fund World.

Leopold Aschenbrenner is a 24-year-old Gen-Z investment savant and former OpenAI researcher. In recent months, he has emerged as one of the wealthiest and most influential figures in the artificial intelligence landscape. Aschenbrenner initially gained prominence on the OpenAI Superalignment team, but his financial trajectory fundamentally shifted after his departure from the company in 2024. Following his exit, he published a viral, prophetic 165-page essay titled Situational Awareness: The Decade Ahead. The paper outlined a detailed roadmap predicting the arrival of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) by 2027, catching the immediate attention of prominent Silicon Valley billionaires and institutional power brokers.  Leveraging the authority generated by his essay, Aschenbrenner transitioned from the tech frontline into the investment world by founding a specialized macro hedge fund, Situational Awareness LP, alongside researcher Carl Shulman. He successfully raised an initial $1 billion to $1.5 billion in capital from high-profile anchor Limited Partners, including Stripe co-founders Patrick and John Collison, alongside tech investors Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross. Rather than chasing traditional tech stocks, Aschenbrenner built a highly unique investment strategy focused deeply on physical AI infrastructure, energy availability, and data center real estate.

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Through incredibly aggressive, leveraged positioning, Aschenbrenner grew the public holdings of the fund from a baseline of $225 million in late 2024 to $13.7 billion by mid-2026. In his essay, Aschenbrenner argues that the rapid acceleration of artificial intelligence is on an unyielding trajectory to achieve AGI by 2027. He claimed that just as the leap from GPT-2 to GPT-4 advanced AI capabilities from preschooler level to a smart high schooler in a mere four years, a similar qualitative leap is remarkably plausible by the late 2020s. Aschenbrenner posits that this imminent breakthrough will soon yield models capable of performing the highly complex cognitive tasks of expert human AI researchers and engineers. Once human-level AGI is realized, the pace of progress will radically decouple from human limitations, instantly triggering an “intelligence explosion”. By automating research, hundreds of millions of active digital agents could compress a conventional decade of algorithmic evolution into a single calendar year, he argued. This compounding feedback loop would rapidly advance technology from AGI to true superintelligence, introducing systems that are vastly superior to human intellect.

Our Methodology

For this article, we selected stocks by combing through the 13F portfolio of Situational Awareness LP at the end of the first quarter of 2026. Data for the hedge fund sentiment surrounding each stock was taken from Insider Monkey’s Q4 2025 database of 1041 elite hedge funds.

Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 498.7% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 303 percentage points (see more details here).

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

40. Seagate Technology Holdings plc (NASDAQ:STX)

Situational Awareness LP’s Stake: Sold Off

Latest filings show that Situational Awareness LP has sold off the stake it held in Seagate Technology Holdings plc (NASDAQ:STX). The stock had first appeared in the 13F portfolio of the fund in the fourth quarter of 2025. Back then, this position comprised 48,000 shares. The firm engages in the provision of data storage technology and infrastructure solutions in Singapore, the United States, the Netherlands, and internationally. It offers mass capacity storage products, including enterprise nearline hard disk drives (HDDs), enterprise nearline solid state drives (SSDs), enterprise nearline systems, video and image HDDs, and network-attached storage drives.

The technical foundation of the Seagate Technology Holdings plc (NASDAQ:STX) bull case is the undisputed first-mover advantage in HAMR technology, commercialized as the Mozaic platform. Seagate began shipping the ultra-high-capacity Mozaic 4 platform for revenue in late March. Management confirmed that HAMR-based exabyte output is on track to constitute the absolute majority of data center shipments by the end of calendar year 2026. The tech roadmap is scaling flawlessly, with the next-generation Mozaic 5 platform tracking ahead of schedule to deliver 50-terabyte single drives in the near term. This density allows hyperscalers to literally double their data center storage capacity without expanding their physical footprint or increasing power hooks.

39. Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC)

Situational Awareness LP’s Stake: Sold Off

Latest filings show that Situational Awareness LP has sold off the stake it held in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC). The stock had first appeared in the 13F portfolio of the fund in the fourth quarter of 2025. Back then, this position comprised 152,000 shares. The firm develops, manufactures, and sells data storage devices and solutions based on hard disk drive technology in the United States, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Following the official spin-off of the volatile flash memory business into a standalone entity, SanDisk, last year, Western Digital is now operating as a streamlined, high-margin pure-play leader in the Hard Disk Drive (HDD) market.

In Q3 2026, Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) delivered a non-GAAP gross margin of 50.5%, an expansion of 1,040 basis points year-over-year. This marks the first time in corporate history that gross margins have cleared the 50% threshold. Tight industry cost control and supply shortages have led to a demand curve. Average HDD prices have spiked dramatically over the trailing months, prompting major enterprise cloud providers to begin signing long-term 5-year supply contracts to secure capacity. The production capacity for high-capacity nearline drives at WDC is essentially sold out through the remainder of the calendar year.  Because of this hyper-efficient revenue mix, operating income leaped 116% year-over-year to $1.3 billion, pushing operating margins to 35.7%.

38. Galaxy Digital (NASDAQ:GLXY)

Situational Awareness LP’s Stake: Sold Off

Latest filings show that Situational Awareness LP has sold off the stake it held in Galaxy Digital (NASDAQ:GLXY). The stock had first appeared in the 13F portfolio of the fund in the fourth quarter of 2025. Back then, this position comprised 2.7 million shares. The firm engages in the digital asset and data centre infrastructure businesses in North America and internationally. Even though the Q1 2026 headline showed a GAAP net loss of $216 million, bulls contend that the underlying core businesses are dramatically healthier than during previous cyclical downturns. The $216 million loss is a major improvement from the $482 million net loss in Q4 2025. Furthermore, Adjusted EBITDA drastically narrowed from a loss of $518 million in Q4 2025 to a loss of $188 million in Q1 2026.

Despite industry-wide trading volumes plunging sharply during the quarter, the Galaxy Digital (NASDAQ:GLXY) Global Markets adjusted gross profit actually rose 3% sequentially to $31 million, proving the firm was taking market share and maintaining stable execution volumes. Proving institutional stickiness, the Asset Management division pulled in $69 million in net organic inflows during the quarter, holding total assets under management stable at around $5 billion alongside $3.2 billion in assets under stake.

37. Liberty Energy Inc. (NYSE:LBRT)

Situational Awareness LP’s Stake: Sold Off

Latest filings show that Situational Awareness LP has sold off the stake it held in Liberty Energy Inc. (NYSE:LBRT). The stock had first appeared in the 13F portfolio of the fund in the fourth quarter of 2025. Back then, this position comprised 567,000 shares. The firm is an integrated energy services and technology company, providing hydraulic fracturing services and related technologies onshore oil, natural gas, and enhanced geothermal exploration and production companies in North America. It offers wireline services, proppant delivery solutions, field gas processing and treating, compressed natural gas (CNG) delivery, data analytics, related goods comprising sand mine operations, and technologies.

Liberty Energy Inc. (NYSE:LBRT) recently reported Q1 2026 revenue of $1.02 billion, a 4% increase year-over-year that shattered consensus Wall Street expectations of $954.7 million. While the market whispered a deeply negative quarter, expecting losses of $0.13 per share, the firm delivered an adjusted EPS of $0.06, a $0.19 per share beat, and a GAAP EPS of $0.14. Net income actually climbed sequentially to $23 million, up from $14 million in Q4 2025. Management confirmed that the sales pipeline for premium fleets vastly exceeds deployment capacity. Driven by record pumping efficiencies from the proprietary StimCommander software, LBRT expects a high single-digit percentage revenue growth sequentially in Q2 2026.

36. Hut 8 Corp. (NASDAQ:HUT)

Situational Awareness LP’s Stake: Sold Off

Latest filings show that Situational Awareness LP has sold off the stake it held in Hut 8 Corp. (NASDAQ:HUT). The stock had first appeared in the 13F portfolio of the fund in the third quarter of 2025. Back then, this position comprised 599,000 shares. In the fourth quarter of 2025, the fund had increased this to 860,000 shares, up 43% compared to the previous quarter. The company operates as an energy infrastructure platform that integrates power, digital infrastructure, and compute at scale to fuel energy-intensive use cases in the United States and Canada. Leopold Aschenbrenner is long on several former Bitcoin miners that have transitioned to providing AI infrastructure services in recent months.

Bulls are highly optimistic about the newly signed hyperscale AI data center leases by Hut 8 Corp. (NASDAQ:HUT), such as the 352 MW Beacon Point project. However, bears have focused on the structural liabilities required to capture that theoretical revenue. Hut 8 is not generating cash from day-to-day operations; it drained $27.2 million in negative net cash used in operating activities during Q1 2026 alone. Building out massive computing infrastructure requires billions in upfront infrastructure. To fund the River Bend AI campus, Hut 8 had to issue $3.25 billion in senior secured notes subsequent to quarter-end. While structured as non-recourse, carrying this level of institutional debt fundamentally alters the risk profile of a former asset-light crypto play.

35. Kilroy Realty Corporation (NYSE:KRC)

Situational Awareness LP’s Stake: Sold Off

Latest filings show that Situational Awareness LP has sold off the stake it held in Kilroy Realty Corporation (NYSE:KRC). The stock had appeared in the 13F portfolio of the fund in the fourth quarter of 2025. This stake comprised 1.3 million shares. The firm is a leading US landlord and developer, with operations in the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Seattle, San Diego, and Austin. The bear case for the stock focuses on structural headwinds in West Coast office real estate, sub-basement occupancy levels, and underlying cash-flow erosion. Even if bears accept FFO as the primary metric for REIT valuation, the year-over-year trajectory shows a business in active operational decay.

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Kilroy Realty Corporation (NYSE:KRC) reported Q1 2026 FFO of $108.8 million, or $0.91 per diluted share. While this technically beat the lowered guidance, it represents an 11% drop compared to the $1.04 FFO per share generated in Q1 2025. Due to escalating building operations overhead and financing costs on sticky vacancies, the FFO margin dropped to 40% in Q1 2026, down from 45% in the same quarter a year prior. The core asset portfolio of the firm is uniquely exposed to major tech-hub markets, such as San Francisco, Seattle, and Los Angeles, that are continuing to feel the pain of structural work-from-home shifts. The total portfolio occupancy for KRC sat at a concerning 77.6% at the end of Q1 2026.

34. Tower Semiconductor Ltd. (NASDAQ:TSEM)

Situational Awareness LP’s Stake: Sold Off

Filings for the first quarter of 2026 show that Leopold Aschenbrenner has sold off the stake his hedge fund had in Tower Semiconductor Ltd. (NASDAQ:TSEM). The stock had first appeared in the 13F portfolio of the fund in the third quarter of 2025. Back then, this position comprised 470,000 shares. In the fourth quarter of 2025, the fund had increased this to 723,000 shares, up 53% compared to the previous quarter. The company is an independent semiconductor foundry that provides technology, development, and process platforms for integrated circuits in the United States, Japan, rest of Asia, and Europe.

Tower Semiconductor Ltd. (NASDAQ:TSEM) is often pitched alongside elite AI hardware infrastructure plays, yet the financial profile remains anchored to the lower-margin realities of physical foundries. The firm celebrated a strong year-over-year recovery in Q1 2026, yet gross margin landed at just 26.8%. While this is an improvement for a specialty foundry, it showcases the asset-heavy nature of the business. The company is plagued by high fixed manufacturing overhead, yield dependencies, and raw substrate costs that software or fabless designers never experience. Net margin for Q1 2026 stood at 16%, $65 million net profit on $414 million revenue. A business retaining just $0.16 of every dollar in sales faces severe downside exposure if industry pricing power softens or macro industrial demand cools.

33. Coherent Corp. (NYSE:COHR)

Situational Awareness LP’s Stake: Sold Off

Filings for the first quarter of 2026 show that Leopold Aschenbrenner has sold off the stake his hedge fund had in Coherent Corp. (NYSE:COHR). The stock had first appeared in the 13F portfolio of the fund in the third quarter of 2025. Back then, this position comprised 154,000 shares. In the fourth quarter of 2025, the fund had increased this to 480,000 shares, up 211% compared to the previous quarter. The company develops, manufactures, and markets engineered materials, optoelectronic components and devices, and laser systems for the use in the industrial, communications, electronics, and instrumentation markets worldwide.

While the optical transceivers and datacom components that Coherent Corp. (NYSE:COHR) markets are essential for AI data centers, bears emphasize that the core legacy business, aggressive capital expansion cycles, and premium valuation present material risks that the investors are overlooking. In Q3 FY26, Data Center and Communications ballooned to represent 75% of total company revenue. While this segment grew 37% year-over-year, it acts as a mask for stagnation or cyclical downside in legacy industrial, materials, and consumer laser markets, which are historically sensitive to macroeconomic slowdowns. Coherent is ramping up capacity for next-generation optical transceiver nodes. Bears argue that once hyperscalers finish building out their initial cluster topologies, order momentum will hit an air pocket.

32. EQT Corporation (NYSE:EQT)

Situational Awareness LP’s Stake: Sold Off

Filings for the first quarter of 2026 show that Leopold Aschenbrenner has sold off the stake his hedge fund had in EQT Corporation (NYSE:EQT). The stock first appeared in the 13F portfolio of the fund back in the first quarter of 2025. This position comprised just under a million shares. The fund then proceeded to add to this stake in the coming months, growing it to 2.15 million in the next quarter and 2.48 million by the fourth quarter of 2025. The company engages in the exploration, production, gathering, and transmission of hydrocarbons and natural gas. It also provides marketing services and contractual pipeline capacity management services, as well as engages in risk management and hedging activities.

Bears emphasize that record Q1 free cash flow for EQT Corporation (NYSE:EQT) was temporarily inflated by seasonal winter pricing and a brief deferral of capital outlays, a reality that reverses sharply in Q2. EQT spent $608 million on capital expenditures in Q1 2026. However, management confirmed that Q2 2026 will represent the absolute peak capital investment for the year. Total guided Q2 capital expenditures jumped to $735–$830 million, $525–$595 million maintenance and $210–$235 million growth. Per-unit operating costs crawled up to $1.09 per Mcfe in Q1 2026 compared to $1.05 per Mcfe in Q1 2025.

31. Cipher Digital Inc. (NASDAQ:CIFR)

Situational Awareness LP’s Stake: Sold Off

Filings for the first quarter of 2026 show that Leopold Aschenbrenner has sold off the stake his hedge fund had in Cipher Digital Inc. (NASDAQ:CIFR). In the fourth quarter of 2025, the fund owned 10.4 million shares in the company. Cipher develops and operates industrial-scale data centers for bitcoin mining and high-performance compute hosting in the United States. It develops HPC data center facilities across various sites for hyperscaler tenants, and operates power at one bitcoin mining data center. It also maintains a pipeline across various sites. Aschenbrenner has generally been bullish on Bitcoin miners turning to AI compute.

However, he has sold off his Cipher Digital Inc. (NASDAQ:CIFR) holding. The primary operational pillar of the bear case is that the legacy revenue engine of the firm is being disassembled far faster than the HPC data center revenues are coming online, leading to structural underperformance. For Q1 2026, Cipher reported revenue of just $34.84 million. This represents a 41.7% collapse sequentially from the $60 million recorded in Q4 2025, driven by the winding down of mining operations at the Black Pearl site. The company reported a GAAP net loss of $114.3 million, $0.28 per diluted share, missing consensus analyst estimates of a $0.23–$0.24 loss per share. This is a severe year-over-year widening from the $39 million net loss reported in Q1 2025. Operating momentum remains deeply negative, with the company posting an Adjusted EBITDA of negative $48 million for the quarter.

30. Lumentum Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:LITE)

Situational Awareness LP’s Stake: Sold Off

Filings for the first quarter of 2026 show that Leopold Aschenbrenner has sold off the stake his hedge fund had in Lumentum Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:LITE). In the fourth quarter of 2025, the fund owned 1.3 million shares in the company. Lumentum manufactures and sells optical and photonic products in the Americas, the Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Over the past six months, the shares have rallied close to 170%. Even during a massive macro-tailwinds period for artificial intelligence networks, the internal operational momentum of the firm is flashing subtle warning signs that top-line growth is hitting a localized ceiling.

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In the Q3 FY2026 print, Lumentum Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:LITE) reported net revenue of $808.4 million. While this was up 90% year-over-year, it actively missed institutional consensus revenue expectations of $820.4 million by roughly $12 million. Despite a recent profit surge, the 5-year trailing earnings for the company have declined by 33.1% per year. The firm has historically been prone to severe boom-and-bust capital expenditure cycles by telecom and hyperscale data center operators. The bear case layout highlights that Lumentum is priced more like a software-as-a-service monolith than a capital-intensive hardware component manufacturer. Any shift in AI hardware spending capital could lead to rapid downside.

29. HIVE Digital Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ:HIVE)

Situational Awareness LP’s Stake: $6 Million

HIVE Digital Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ:HIVE) is a new addition to the 13F portfolio of Situational Awareness LP. The fund declared a new stake in the company in filings for the first quarter of 2026. This stake consists of close to 3.4 million shares. The firm is a technology company that engages in building and operating data centers powered by green energy in Bermuda and Paraguay. The company operates the mining and sale of digital currencies and performance computing hosting. It also provides infrastructure solutions, such as computational capacity to distributed networks in the blockchain industry.

Leopold Aschenbrenner is bullish on HIVE Digital Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ:HIVE). The most compelling aspect of the bull case for the firm is Buzz HPC, the dedicated high-performance computing and AI cloud hosting division of the company. This segment completely decouples HIVE from pure-play crypto volatility. Earlier this month, HIVE announced the buildout of a 320 MW Sovereign AI Infrastructure project in the Greater Toronto Area. This acts as a premier sovereign AI factory in eastern Canada, providing secure, localized data center capacity for institutional and corporate AI enterprise demands. The GPU cloud infrastructure of the firm is scaling to 11,000 active units, establishing a highly stable, predictable corporate revenue stream. Management is actively targeting an Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) run-rate of $225 million from HPC operations, converting low-cost energy into enterprise computing power.

28. Infosys Limited (NYSE:INFY)

Situational Awareness LP’s Stake: $7 Million 

Infosys Limited (NYSE:INFY) first appeared in the 13F portfolio of Situational Awareness LP in the fourth quarter of 2025. Back then, this stake comprised PUT bets comprising 500,000 shares. Filings for the first quarter of 2026 show that the fund has made no changes to this stake. The firm provides consulting, technology, outsourcing, and digital services worldwide. Leopold Aschenbrenner has generally had a bearish outlook on software companies in recent months, preferring instead to invest in energy and AI hardware companies often overlooked by many investors due to the boring nature of their business.

Infosys Limited (NYSE:INFY) management publicly champions the AI pipeline, but the conference call transcripts pulled back the curtain on a structural problem: AI is a double-edged sword for legacy IT service providers. On the Q4 2026 earnings call, CEO Salil Parekh explicitly cited AI productivity impacts alongside heavy competitive intensity as reasons for the soft outlook. Clients are leveraging GenAI tools to demand efficiency cutbacks on standard application maintenance and software testing contracts. Because Infosys builds revenue on billable engineering hours, when an AI agent reduces the required workforce on a project by 30%, the revenue pool shrinks. The company is forced to run faster just to stay in place, cannibalizing legacy revenue lines to secure lower-priced AI deployment deals.

27. ProPetro Holding Corp. (NYSE:PUMP)

Situational Awareness LP’s Stake: $13 Million

ProPetro Holding Corp. (NYSE:PUMP) first appeared in the 13F portfolio of Situational Awareness LP in the fourth quarter of 2025. Back then, this stake comprised a little over 910,000 shares. Filings for the first quarter of 2026 show that the fund has made no changes to this stake. The firm operates as an integrated energy services company. It offers hydraulic fracturing, wireline and cementing, other complementary energy completion services, and power generation services to oil and gas producers and non-oil and gas applications, such as general industrial projects and data centers located primarily in Texas and New Mexico. Leopold Aschenbrenner has a bullish outlook on the stock.

In recent months, ProPetro Holding Corp. (NYSE:PUMP) has quietly weaponized the Permian Basin footprint, mechanical engineering expertise, and industrial power infrastructure to transform into a major AI data center and independent microgrid power supplier. The biggest bottleneck for AI data centers is securing power generation assets, with lead times for large-scale industrial turbines stretching into years. ProPetro completely bypassed this bottleneck via a massive corporate catalyst. In April, the firm executed a strategic framework agreement with Caterpillar, locking in access to up to 2.1 additional gigawatts of advanced power generation capacity over the next five years.

26. SharonAI Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:SHAZ)

Situational Awareness LP’s Stake: $18 Million

SharonAI Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:SHAZ) is a new addition to the 13F portfolio of Situational Awareness LP. The fund declared a new stake in the company in filings for the first quarter of 2026. This stake consists of close to 796,000 shares. The firm operates as a computing company specializing in accelerated compute platforms, AI infrastructure, and cloud GPU environments. It operates through a hybrid model that combines deployment in data centers with the development of its data center facilities in strategic locations. Its platform integrates compute, storage, networking, and automation into a unified enterprise solution serving AI labs, hyperscale customers, research institutions, and regulated industries.

Leopold Aschenbrenner likes SharonAI Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:SHAZ) stock. As a premier NeoCloud provider utilizing high-density NVIDIA clusters, the bull case for the firm is entirely built on an unprecedented backlog conversion cycle set to activate in H2 2026. During the Q1 2026 earnings call, management confirmed major enterprise contract wins. SHAZ secured a massive five-year, $1.25 billion contract with ESDS, an India-based IT services powerhouse. This landmark deal is locked in to begin revenue recognition in September 2026. Post-quarter, SHAZ executed a $950 million, five-year take-or-pay infrastructure agreement with a global technology firm in the Asia-Pacific region. Revenue is scheduled to hit the tape in Q3/Q4 2026.

25. Babcock & Wilcox Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE:BW)

Situational Awareness LP’s Stake: $19 Million

Babcock & Wilcox Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE:BW) first appeared in the 13F portfolio of Situational Awareness LP in the fourth quarter of 2025. Back then, this stake comprised a little over 1.3 million shares. Filings for the first quarter of 2026 show that the fund has made no changes to this stake. The company provides energy and emissions control solutions to industrial, electrical utility, municipal, and other customers in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Indonesia, and the Philippines. Leopold Aschenbrenner is bullish on the stock. Under the hood, the firm is pivoting from a legacy industrial boiler company into a high-margin, grid-infrastructure, and clean-energy powerhouse directly capturing the AI data center boom.

Bulls emphasize that the macro tailwinds for utility and industrial power generation are converting directly into rapid top-line scaling for Babcock & Wilcox Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE:BW), far exceeding Wall Street projections. Total revenue for Q1 2026 reached $214.4 million, jumping 44% year-over-year compared to $148.6 million in Q1 2025. The $214.4 million performance blew past the average consensus analyst forecast of $157.2 million by more than 36%. This beat was driven by high project volumes, including their Base Electron project, and accelerating global utility demand to feed power-hungry AI workloads. The Adjusted EBITDA for Q1 2026 surged to $16.1 million, a 296% increase from the $4 million reported in Q1 2025.

24. WhiteFiber, Inc. (NASDAQ:WYFI)

Situational Awareness LP’s Stake: $20 Million

WhiteFiber, Inc. (NASDAQ:WYFI) is a new addition to the 13F portfolio of Situational Awareness LP. The fund declared a new stake in the company in filings for the first quarter of 2026. This stake consists of close to 991,000 shares. The firm provides artificial intelligence infrastructure solutions. It operates through two segments, cloud services and colocation services. The company designs, develops, and operates data centers. It also offers hosting, colocation, and cloud-based high-performance computing (HPC) graphics processing unit (GPU) services. Latest reports indicate that the firm has entered into a $100 million delayed draw term loan facility with Bit Digital Capital, a wholly owned subsidiary of Bit Digital. The facility may be increased to $150 million upon mutual agreement of the parties.

WhiteFiber, Inc. (NASDAQ:WYFI) has invited bullish bets from money managers like Leopold Aschenbrenner in recent months. Earlier this month, the firm announced that it had signed a five-year agreement to provide AI compute infrastructure for an investment-grade technology customer. The deployment will be based in the Paris region and use advanced NVIDIA GPU systems. The contract carries a total value exceeding $160 million over five years. Total revenue of Q1 2026 for the firm crossed $21.92 million, popping 31% year-over-year from $16.77 million in Q1 2025. The real catalyst was the colocation services division, which skyrocketed by 190.2% year-over-year to reach $4.77 million, up from $1.64 million in the prior-year period.

23. Corning Incorporated (NYSE:GLW) PUT

Situational Awareness LP’s Stake: $21 Million

Corning Incorporated (NYSE:GLW) is a new addition to the 13F portfolio of Situational Awareness LP. The fund declared a new stake in the company in filings for the first quarter of 2026. This stake consists of PUT bets worth close to 155,000 shares. The firm operates in optical communications, display, specialty materials, automotive, and life sciences businesses in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Japan, Taiwan, China, South Korea, Germany, and internationally. Driven by intense hype surrounding the optical fiber agreements with AI hyperscalers like Meta, the stock soared to all-time highs, driving market capitalization past $164 billion. In the past twelve months, shares have climbed close to 300%.

However, smart money managers like Leopold Aschenbrenner realize that Corning Incorporated (NYSE:GLW) is trading on a software-like valuation without software-like cash generation. Instead, the physical footprint of the firm requires massive, ongoing capital injections just to sustain operations and fulfill new hyperscaler contracts. In Q1 2026, while Corning reported core net income growth, it converted that into just $188 million in Free Cash Flow. On a quarterly revenue base of $4.35 billion and a market cap of $164 billion, an FCF print this low represents a cash conversion rate of just 4.3%. To support new optical fiber expansions, management revealed on the Q1 call that capital expenditures are escalating. Projected CapEx for FY 2026 is modeled at $1.7 billion or higher.

22. Power Solutions International, Inc. (NASDAQ:PSIX)

Situational Awareness LP’s Stake: $26 Million

Power Solutions International, Inc. (NASDAQ:PSIX) first appeared in the 13F portfolio of Situational Awareness LP in the fourth quarter of 2025. Back then, this stake comprised a little over 432,000 shares. Filings for the first quarter of 2026 show that the fund has made no changes to this stake. The firm designs, engineers, manufactures, markets, and sells engines and power systems in the United States, the rest of North America, the Pacific Rim, Europe, and internationally. Earlier this month, the firm revealed that CEO Constantine Xykis had resigned and the board had appointed CFO Xun Li as interim CEO. As part of a larger bet on energy firms, Leopold Aschenbrenner is bullish on Power Solutions as well.

Power Solutions International, Inc. (NASDAQ:PSIX) sits directly at the nexus of the global data center power crisis. As the grid fails to keep pace with AI hyperscale demands, decentralized, on-site prime and standby power systems are the ultimate constraint, and Power Solutions possesses a rare, heavily insulated operational moat to fulfill it. A core pillar of the bull case for the firm is that earnings are backed by hard, cash-generative operations, completely separating it from speculative or pre-revenue infrastructure plays. Despite lower recorded net income for the latest quarter, $7.3 million, the company generated $18.7 million in operating cash flow. This operating cash flow print is more than double the cash generated in the prior-year period.

21. Bitdeer Technologies Group (NASDAQ:BTDR)

Situational Awareness LP’s Stake: $30 Million

Bitdeer Technologies Group (NASDAQ:BTDR) has been a consistent feature in the 13F portfolio of Situational Awareness LP since the third quarter of 2025. Back then, this position comprised just under a million shares. In the fourth quarter of 2025, the fund increased this holding by 92% to 1.8 million shares. Filings for the first quarter of 2026 show that the fund owns 3.4 million shares in the firm, up 92% compared to filings for the previous quarter. The firm operates as a technology company for blockchain and high-performance computing (HPC) in Singapore, the United States, Bhutan, Norway, Finland, Ethiopia, and internationally. Leopold Aschenbrenner has had a bullish view on the stock for many months.

Bitdeer Technologies Group (NASDAQ:BTDR) is different from other Bitcoin miners who are pivoting to AI infrastructure. The firm has spent years building a deeply integrated, vertically structured computing powerhouse. It is not just leasing space but designing proprietary silicon, launching AI clouds, and building a massive global footprint. Bitdeer reported $188.9 million in total revenue for Q1 2026, marking a 170% year-over-year increase compared to the $70.1 million reported in Q1 2025. Driven by this revenue scaling, Adjusted EBITDA swung to a positive $14.4 million, representing a massive $60 million structural improvement over the negative $45.6 million Adjusted EBITDA recorded in the prior-year period.

20. Keel Infrastructure Corp. (NASDAQ:KEEL)

Situational Awareness LP’s Stake: $39 Million

Keel Infrastructure Corp. (NASDAQ:KEEL) first appeared in the 13F portfolio of Situational Awareness LP. in the fourth quarter of 2025. Back then, this position comprised close to 7 million shares. Filings for the first quarter of 2026 show that the fund owns close to 20 million shares in the firm, up around 188% compared to filings for the previous quarter. The firm operates digital and energy infrastructure with focus on high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence workloads in North America, Canada, and the United States. It primarily owns and operates data centers housing computers to validate transactions on the bitcoin blockchain, as well as sells computational power used for hashing calculations for cryptocurrency mining.

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Leopold Aschenbrenner is bullish on Keel Infrastructure Corp. (NASDAQ:KEEL). In the current AI land grab, the rarest commodity is not the GPU. It is a secured connection to the power grid. A new grid interconnection request can take five to seven years to clear utility queues. Keel bypasses this queue entirely. The firm owns a development pipeline controlling 2.2 GW of power capacity with established grid interconnections already locked in across prime, low-latency, and energy-dense regions including Pennsylvania, Washington, and Québec. At 2.2 GW of capacity, bulls point out that the market is valuing this infrastructure at less than a fraction of what a ground-up data center build costs to clear utility hurdles.

19. T1 Energy Inc. (NYSE:TE)

Situational Awareness LP’s Stake: $44 Million

T1 Energy Inc. (NYSE:TE) is a new addition to the 13F portfolio of Situational Awareness LP. The fund declared a new stake in the company in filings for the first quarter of 2026. This stake consists of 10 million shares. The firm provides energy solutions for solar modules and cells in the United States, Norway and internationally. It manufactures and sells photovoltaic solar modules. The share price of the company has surged recently, extending a rally that has pushed the stock up over 122% in the past month. One reason for this is the strong Q1 2026 earnings where the firm reported GAAP EPS of $0.01, beating estimates by $0.15, while revenue jumped 232% year-on-year, topping expectations by $66.88 million.

Investors are also focused on the expansion plans of T1 Energy Inc. (NYSE:TE). For example, construction of the flagship Austin solar cell facility remains on schedule, with first structural steel expected later in May and initial production targeted for Q4 2026. The management said demand for future G1/G2 production already exceeds more than 100% of anticipated 2027-2028 capacity. Institutional sentiment around the shares has improved after the latest disclosures by Leopold Aschenbrenner as well, pushing the firm into the spotlight as media outlets discuss the long-term potential of the stock in light of the bullish bet by Aschenbrenner.

18. Solaris Energy Infrastructure, Inc. (NYSE:SEI)

Situational Awareness LP’s Stake: $62 Million

Solaris Energy Infrastructure, Inc. (NYSE:SEI) first appeared in the 13F portfolio of Situational Awareness LP in the third quarter of 2025. Back then, this position comprised 1.1 million shares. In the fourth quarter of 2025, the fund added to this stake, growing it by 62% to more than 1.8 million shares. Filings for the first quarter of 2026 show that the fund owns 1.1 million shares in the firm, down 40% compared to filings for the previous quarter. The stock is up more than 46% over the past six months. The company provides modular and scalable equipment-based solutions for power generation, control and distribution, and management of raw materials used in the completion of oil and natural gas wells in the United States.

Solaris Energy Infrastructure, Inc. (NYSE:SEI) is turning heads of money managers like Leopold Aschenbrenner because it is leveraging expertise in high-capacity equipment logistics to build an infrastructure moat that addresses the primary bottleneck of the AI boom: the multi-year queue for power grid interconnects. The company is realizing immediate revenue gains as the mobile power infrastructure fleet deploys rapidly across industrial and digital infrastructure projects. Solaris generated total revenue of $196.2 million for Q1 2026, marking a 55.3% year-over-year increase compared to the $126.3 million recorded in Q1 2025. The quarter reflected a high-margin operational balance, with high-predictability leasing revenues surging to $105.4 million, while field and operational service revenues scaled up to $90.9 million.

17. CleanSpark, Inc. (NASDAQ:CLSK)

Situational Awareness LP’s Stake: $104 Million

CleanSpark, Inc. (NASDAQ:CLSK) first appeared in the 13F portfolio of Situational Awareness LP in the fourth quarter of 2025. Back then, this position comprised 1.6 million shares. Filings for the first quarter of 2026 show that the fund owned 12.2 million shares in the firm, up close to 650% compared to filings for the previous quarter. CleanSpark operates as a bitcoin mining company in the Americas. It also owns, leases, and operates data centers and power assets. Matthew Schultz, the CEO of the firm, said during the latest earnings call that the quarter represented meaningful progress in the evolution of the firm into a digital infrastructure and data center development company. Schultz said the company has 1.8 gigawatts of currently contracted capacity and had added 25 megawatts of contracted capacity to one of the Metro Atlanta locations last month. He also said the company was focusing on long duration leases with high-quality tenants.

CleanSpark, Inc. (NASDAQ:CLSK) has attracted the attention of Leopold Aschenbrenner in recent months. In the modern compute economy, the ultimate constraint is not chip architecture, but ready-to-plug, utility-approved power. The firm has quieted bear narratives by securing grid interconnects in premium geographic zones. In the May 2026 operational update, management confirmed that the company has officially doubled total megawatts under contract year-over-year. The core asset backing the long-term bull case is the pipeline of 585 MW of fully ERCOT-approved, utility-grade capacity in Texas. This is supplemented by a broader multi-gigawatt expansion platform distributed across institutional sites in Texas and Georgia.

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.

15. Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) PUT

Situational Awareness LP’s Stake: $159 Million

Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) is a new addition to the 13F portfolio of Situational Awareness LP. The fund declared a new stake in the company in filings for the first quarter of 2026. This stake consists of PUT bets worth close to 3.6 million shares. The firm has an ambition to become the premier contract foundry for the Western world. This requires massive amounts of capital expenditure, but the segment is currently operating as a severe drag on the consolidated financials of the parent company. The Intel Foundry segment recorded an operating loss of $2.40 billion for Q1 2026 alone. While this loss technically compressed marginally quarter-over-quarter due to early improvements in Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) wafer mix on the Intel 3 and 18A nodes, the foundry remains unprofitable.

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Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) has been forced to pour roughly $5 billion in gross quarterly CapEx into fab infrastructure, resulting in an adjusted free cash flow of negative $2 billion for the quarter. Bears argue that Intel cannot scale fast enough to stop this cash bleed before traditional cash-cow segments begin to erode. Bulls point to top-line Q1 2026 revenue of $13.60 billion as a sign of stabilization. However, segment breakdowns reveal that Intel is failing to secure the highly lucrative external design wins required to sustain a standalone foundry business model. Out of the $5.4 billion in total Intel Foundry revenue reported in Q1, External Foundry revenue accounted for a meager $174 million. Over 96% of factory utilization is still just Intel manufacturing its own internal chips. The company is failing to win meaningful market share from external hyperscalers or fabless rivals who continue to favor TSM.

14. Applied Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:APLD)

Situational Awareness LP’s Stake: $320 Million

Applied Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:APLD) has consistently featured in the 13F portfolio of Situational Awareness LP since the first quarter of 2025. Back then, this position consisted of around 4 million shares. The fund added to this position in the next quarter, growing it to more than 6.5 million shares. Another addition to the stake was made in the fourth quarter of 2025, when the fund grew the stake by over 86%. Filings for the first quarter of 2026 show that the fund owned close to 13.5 million shares in the firm, up close to 20% compared to filings for the fourth quarter of 2025. The firm designs, develops, and operates digital infrastructure solutions to high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence industries in North America. It formerly operated as a Bitcoin miner.

Applied Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:APLD) features on a long list of former Bitcoin firms that have transitioned to AI compute and won the backing of Leopold Aschenbrenner. While many infrastructure builders are still in the planning or early construction phases, Applied is actively converting completed infrastructure into realized, high-margin revenue. The firm reported total revenue of $126.64 million for the latest quarter, marking a 139.3% year-over-year increase from the $52.92 million reported in the prior-year period. This print cleared consensus Wall Street analyst estimates of $76.56 million by 67.3%. Driven by the ramp-up of HPC hosting segment, which contributed roughly $71 million to the quarter, the company flipped non-GAAP bottom line to an adjusted EPS of $0.09 per share, beating expectations for an EPS loss.

13. Core Scientific, Inc. (NASDAQ:CORZ)

Situational Awareness LP’s Stake: $389 Million

Core Scientific, Inc. (NASDAQ:CORZ) has consistently featured in the 13F portfolio of Situational Awareness LP since the first quarter of 2025. Back then, this position consisted of around 4.5 million shares. In the quarters since, the fund has aggressively added to this stake, growing it by 76%, 152%, and 42% in the next three quarters. Filings for the first quarter of 2026 show that the fund owned close to 26 million shares in the firm, down close to 10% compared to filings for the fourth quarter of 2025. Core provides infrastructure for high-density colocation services and digital asset mining in the United States. Before transition to AI computing, Core was one of the largest publicly-traded Bitcoin miners in North America.

Leopold Aschenbrenner is bullish on Core Scientific, Inc. (NASDAQ:CORZ). Bears have historically shorted the firm due to the highly cyclical and capital-intensive nature of Bitcoin mining. The Q1 2026 financial data proves that the company has successfully decoupled baseline survival from cryptocurrency volatility. Core Scientific reported total consolidated revenue of $115.24 million for Q1 2026. Management officially announced a critical operational milestone: colocation infrastructure revenue now completely covers the company’s structural operating costs. By leasing out its high-density data center space to third-party AI compute tenants, the company has established a reliable, non-crypto financial floor, transforming any future self-mining Bitcoin production into pure profit upside.

12. IREN Limited (NASDAQ:IREN)

Situational Awareness LP’s Stake: $401 Million

IREN Limited (NASDAQ:IREN) has consistently featured in the 13F portfolio of Situational Awareness LP since the first quarter of 2025. Back then, this position consisted of just 3.3 million shares. In the quarters since, the fund has steadily added to this stake, growing it by 90%, 12%, and 20% in the next three quarters. Filings for the first quarter of 2026 show that the fund owned close to 12 million shares in the firm, up 35% compared to filings for the fourth quarter of 2025. The firm operates in the vertically integrated data center business in Australia and Canada. It owns and operates computing hardware, as well as electrical infrastructure and data centers. The company also mines Bitcoin. Leopold Aschenbrenner has been exceedingly bullish on companies transitioning from Bitcoin mining to AI infrastructure providers.

IREN Limited (NASDAQ:IREN) has managed to instantly monetize physical data center footprint through long-term, high-margin hyperscaler partnerships. In latest financial disclosures, IREN announced a landmark $9.7 billion, 5-year AI cloud contract with Microsoft. Under the terms of this sweeping agreement, the firm is deploying advanced NVIDIA architectures across 200 megawatts of dedicated data center space at the flagship Childress, Texas campus. The contract features a 20% upfront prepayment from Microsoft to immediately fund incoming equipment costs, and it is structured to generate $1.94 billion in Annual Recurring Revenue. Through Bitcoin mining operations that are now being put towards AI compute, IREN commands 3 gigawatts of total secured power capacity across the data center pipeline.

11. ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML) PUT

Situational Awareness LP’s Stake: $494 Million

ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML) is a new addition to the 13F portfolio of Situational Awareness LP. The fund declared a new stake in the company in filings for the first quarter of 2026. This stake consists of PUT bets worth close to 375,000 shares. The firm provides lithography solutions for the development, production, marketing, sales, upgrading, and servicing of advanced semiconductor equipment systems. The next leg of growth for ASML relies on customers like TSM, Intel, and Samsung transitioning to ultra-advanced High Numerical Aperture (High NA) EUV machines. Short-sellers argue that the staggering physical cost of these systems is hitting an economic brick wall.

A single standard EUV machine from ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML) costs roughly $180 million to $200 million. The new High NA EUV systems carry a jaw-dropping price tag of almost $380 million to $400 million per unit. At $400 million a machine, the return on investment for chip foundries becomes highly strained. Major customers are pushing back against this. TSM has explicitly noted that it will rely on existing, heavily optimized Low NA EUV equipment for upcoming advanced nodes through late 2026/2027, rather than buying High NA units at scale. Short-sellers calculate that multi-year projections for ASML overestimate how quickly foundries will absorb this capital expenditure burden, creating risk of a High NA order vacuum.

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