Yeah, it's not like there are AI-focused hedge funds crashing and burning right now.
The fund is still well up because approximately 25% of the fund’s assets were invested in Anthropic, which has done well but is not very liquid yet.
No matter how you slice it the whole sequence of events last week was an unmitigated disaster. He’ll likely never manage other people’s money ever again.
> When this star of San Francisco arrived in New York during his fund-raising tour around last summer, however, he received a relatively cool reception, according to three people from whom he tried to raise money, who declined to be identified talking about a private fund. They said they viewed him as a lightweight and a one-hit wonder. The asset management colossus Blackstone, the world’s largest investor in hedge funds, passed on investing, according to two of those people.
> One wealthy New York investor who did take the meeting welcomed Mr. Aschenbrenner into his downtown office, and then gave him a grilling, according to the investor, who declined to be named publicly because he had agreed to keep the contents of the fund’s pitch private.
> What was Mr. Aschenbrenner’s plan if the A.I. revolution didn’t pan out quite as hoped? The hedge-fund founder had no detailed response, the investor recalled. Mr. Aschenbrenner simply truly believed it would all work out.
(as quoted in https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/newsletters/2026-08-03/hed..., originally from https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/31/business/situational-awar...)
It actually wasn't an unmitigated disaster. He was overleveraged and apparently had the dumbest hedges (he was long AI and short software and when AI was down software was up so his hedges didn't hedge).
Citadel swooped in and bought the public equity portfolio. That's the definition of mitigated. There was no propagation of the fund's losses to other financial institutions. This made for great headlines but it was a nothingburger as far as markets are concerned.
> He’ll likely never manage other people’s money ever again.
He didn't close the fund so he's still managing other people's money. And while nothing about his profile would ever persuade me to be his LP, you're underestimating the fact that a pristine track record isn't required to raise money. Given this kid's profile and the fact that he made an obvious mistake (even if it was big), there are probably people out there who still have an appetite for parking money with him.
Didn't hold back Sam Altman. And he's not the only one...
You can read in their investor letter exactly what happened and where they stand and explicitly they did not sell every liquid thing nor did they sell all their public equities. Are you just lying or stupid?