The Securities and Exchange Commission has begun subpoenaing banks connected to Situational Awareness, the AI-focused hedge fund led by OpenAI alumnus Leopold Aschenbrenner, according to The New York Times.
The subpoenas target banks that supervised the fund’s trading and channeled funding to support it. Regulators have reportedly told those institutions to preserve any information about the fund. No wrongdoing has been alleged, and the fund told the Times it expects scrutiny of high-profile funds and will “cooperate to the fullest extent with any regulatory request.”
The probe lands after a brutal month for the firm. Situational Awareness went all-in on AI-related investments and enjoyed a period of explosive growth before a late-July downturn in AI stocks erased billions in value.
Aschenbrenner, a former OpenAI researcher known for his essays on AGI timelines, built the fund into one of Wall Street’s most watched AI bets. Its rapid rise and sudden reversal have turned it into a cautionary tale about the durability of AI-driven market momentum.
TechCrunch’s request for comment was not answered, and the SEC has not commented publicly on the matter.
