Securities regulator investigates hedge fund's near-collapse last month

The US Securities and Exchange Commission has sent legal demands to several banks connected to Situational Awareness, a hedge fund that nearly collapsed last month. The fund focuses on artificial intelligence trading and is led by Leopold Aschenbrenner, a 24-year-old former researcher at OpenAI. At its peak, the fund controlled over 30 billion dollars and borrowed tens of billions more. Regulators asked banks to hand over details about the timing of trades and conversations about borrowed money. The fund suffered heavy losses and had to sell most of its shares to investment firm Citadel at a reduced price. Situational Awareness has not been accused of any wrongdoing and says it will cooperate fully with regulators. The SEC routinely investigates funds that experience large, sudden losses.