JPMorgan Chase has ended its lending relationship with Situational Awareness, the AI-focused hedge fund founded by former OpenAI researcher Leopold Aschenbrenner, following a sharp deterioration in the fund’s portfolio, according to a report by the Financial Times.
The report cites an unnamed person familiar with the matter as saying that the decision comes after Situational Awareness suffered substantial losses on leveraged bets across the artificial intelligence and semiconductor sectors, culminating in a steep portfolio decline and a margin call during July’s global chip-stock sell-off.
The hedge fund subsequently liquidated most of its public equity positions to Citadel as it sought to manage the fallout from the losses.
JPMorgan was one of the fund’s key lenders and notified Situational Awareness that it would no longer provide financing, according to the source.
Other major Wall Street firms, including Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and Bank of America remain brokers to the fund, while New York-based brokerage Clear Street has also recently begun working with the firm.
JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Citi and Bank of America reportedly declined to comment, while Situational Awareness reportedly did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
