Situational Awareness disclosure shows big SanDisk, Micron bets before AI-stock sell-off

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Highlights

Situational Awareness disclosed $5.7 billion in SanDisk and $5.6 billion in Micron at June 30, comprising 56% of its $20 billion U.S. portfolio.
Between March and June, the fund more than doubled its SanDisk position to 2.5 million shares and expanded Micron holdings to 4.8 million shares.
In July, SanDisk fell 47% and Micron dropped 29%, leading to a 67% portfolio decline, margin calls, and sales of holdings to Citadel.

Portfolio concentration before the downturn

As reported by Business Insider, Situational Awareness held a $5.7 billion stake in SanDisk and a $5.6 billion stake in Micron at the end of June, according to its quarterly 13F portfolio disclosure released on Friday. Those positions represented 56% of a disclosed U.S. stock portfolio valued at just over $20 billion, excluding put and call options.

The filing shows a sharp increase from the end of March, when the firm directly owned less than $4 billion of stocks and its largest disclosed holding was an $879 million position in Bloom Energy. Over the three months ended June 30, Leopold Aschenbrenner's firm more than doubled its direct SanDisk stake to about 2.5 million shares and expanded its Micron position from roughly 17,000 shares to 4.8 million shares.

Situational Awareness also increased its TSMC holding from about 22,000 American Depositary Shares to 2.6 million and established a $1.2 billion stake in Nebius. At the same time, the fund reduced its option positions from 16 to two small calls and one even smaller put, cutting the number of protective put positions from 11 to one.

Market fallout and disclosure limits

That positioning suggests the fund took on more risk before the July sell-off in AI-related stocks. SanDisk shares fell 47% in July and Micron dropped 29% as investors locked in gains after a strong rally and grew concerned about elevated valuations.

Both stocks have since recovered some ground as investors continue to bet they will benefit from the buildout of AI infrastructure. Situational Awareness' fortunes reversed in July when the AI-stock retreat pushed its highly leveraged portfolio down 67%, triggering margin calls from lenders and forcing Aschenbrenner to sell most of the fund's publicly traded stocks to Ken Griffin's Citadel.

The 13F filing does not provide a complete picture of the firm's strategy because it captures holdings on a single day within the quarter and excludes short positions, foreign-listed stocks, non-equity assets and private investments, including Situational's reported stake in Anthropic. Aschenbrenner did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In our earlier coverage of the July AI-stock sell-off, we explained how the drawdown rippled through Wall Street, including a rare trading setback at Jane Street that it disclosed to lenders while shifting a large chunk of its debt from public markets to a private lending deal. We also noted that the same bout of volatility hit AI-focused funds such as Situational Awareness, where concentrated, leveraged bets contributed to steep losses and a forced sale of public equity positions to Citadel.

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