Ken Griffin said in a letter to shoppers Friday that Citadel has unwound more than 80% of the “aggregate risk” tied to its last-minute buy of belongings from AI hedge fund Situational Awareness.

In a letter obtained by the Financial Times, Griffin revealed the agency has performed more than 100 block trades value over $4 billion in just three weeks since the buy – implying Citadel was ready to efficiently flip AI wunderkind Leopold Aschenbrenner’s flailing portfolio.

Aschenbrenner, the 25-year-old “Nostradamus of AI,” had grown his hedge fund to $20 billion – despite having no prior Wall Street expertise – by betting it all on AI. His agency held a $5.7 billion stake in SanDisk, a $5.6 billion one in Micron and quick positions on some software program shares.

Ken Griffin said in a letter to shoppers Friday that Citadel has unwound more than 80% of the “aggregate risk” tied to Situational Awareness. Bloomberg via Getty Images

But in late July, after weeks of rocky buying and selling periods for AI and tech shares, Aschenbrenner was pressured to offload all of his public inventory positions in a 24-hour fireplace sale to Citadel.

“Over our nearly thirty-six-year history, we have prided ourselves on being front-footed and proactive during periods of market dislocation,” Griffin wrote in the Friday letter. “Only Citadel could have delivered a solution of this scale on this timeline.”

Citadel did not instantly reply to The Post’s request for remark.

Citadel purchased the belongings at a roughly 10% low cost, hoping it could shortly flip the positions once the market rebounded, according to the Financial Times.

Since Griffin’s agency bought the portfolio, the AI commerce has began to bounce back. Shares of SanDisk and Micron have regained some losses. 

Leopold Aschenbrenner, the so-called “Nostradamus of AI.” YouTube/Dwarkesh Patel

Citadel’s billions of {dollars}’ value of inventory gross sales in just a few weeks is a signal the hedge fund reaped large income from the Eleventh-hour purchase.

Griffin also said in the letter that the agency’s flagship multistrategy Wellington fund saw a 5.94% return in July, its finest month-to-month efficiency since 2022.

Wall Street and Silicon Valley bigwigs had rushed to make investments in Situational Awareness, including Neil Mehta, co-founder of venture-capital agency Greenoaks; Dan Sundheim, founder of hedge fund D1 Capital Partners; investor Gaurav Kapadia’s basis; and Feroz Dewan, former head of public equities at Tiger Global Management, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Citadel purchased Situational Awareness’ public inventory positions in a 24-hour fireplace sale. REUTERS

Some of these hotshot buyers had warned Aschenbrenner – who was beforehand fired from OpenAI – about the dangers of his investing technique, according to the Journal. 

Others were rising annoyed about the Germany-born founder’s lack of communication and disclosures, since Situational Awareness only disclosed returns quarterly, not month-to-month like most other funds, the report said.

Situational Awareness had borrowed massively to finance its AI bets – and this backfired over the summer time as holdings nosedived and some buyers requested for their cash back.

Jane Street, one of Wall Street’s high funding banks and an investor in Situational Awareness, posted a $15 billion loss in July following the fund’s implosion.

In a letter in late July, Aschenbrenner advised buyers that Situational Awareness was still up 80% over the 12 months. He had earlier said it was up more than 400% for the first six months of 2026.