Ken Griffin of Castle in a letter to customers on Friday addressed for the first time the firm’s agree with of property from Leopold Aschenbrenner’s Situational Awareness hedge fund.
Essentially primarily based fully on a letter received by CNBC’s Sara Eisen, Griffin told customers that Castle has unwound extra than 80% of the aggregate likelihood from the brand new portfolio purchased by conducting extra than 100 block trades over $4 billion in market imprint.
Griffin detailed in the letter that Castle entered discussions with Situational Awareness to accomplish just a few of the fund’s holdings on July 29. One day later, CNBC’s David Faber reported that Situational Awareness used to be forced to promote all of its public inventory positions after going by means of steep losses. Castle used to be later printed because the purchaser of the property.
“A transaction of this magnitude could not have been completed without the extraordinary cooperation of the trading and prime brokerage teams at the banks serving both firms,” Griffin wrote in the Friday letter to customers. “I am grateful for the focused effort they brought to the rapid transfer of the portfolio.”
Ken Griffin, founder and CEO of multinational hedge fund Castle, speaks through the 29th annual Milken Institute World Conference on the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California on Might per chance also 5, 2026.
Patrick T. Fallon | AFP | Getty Images
Griffin additionally confirmed the firm’s flagship multistrategy Wellington fund returned 5.94% in July, which CNBC beforehand reported marked the fund’s easiest monthly efficiency since 2022.
Situational Awareness as a hedge fund concentrated positions in the unreal intelligence switch, reflecting 25-year-historic Aschenbrenner’s belief that the skills would primarily reshape the enviornment and the economy. On the equivalent time, the fund had short positions in some system companies, a sector that patrons enjoy terrified could be disrupted by AI.
On the alternative hand, the AI switch faltered in June and July — even while broader indexes seemed flat — with stocks that Situational Awareness had mountainous stakes in, be pleased Sandisk and Bloom Vitality, tumbling extra than 50%. On the equivalent time, system names be pleased Adobe rebounded, that scheme the fund used to be shedding cash on each its prolonged and short positions.
That role off each margin calls and compulsory gross sales on the fund.
Since Castle stepped in to aquire the fund’s publicly traded property, the AI switch has rebounded, with Situational Awareness’ sale representing a bottom for the promote-off that started in June.
