Gary Marcus on AI Compute Trade Blowup: Right on Demand, Killed by Leverage
GaryMarcus · x · 2026-07-31
Gary Marcus retweeted and commented on the margin call and liquidation of the hedge fund Situational Awareness, run by Leopold Aschenbrenner (former OpenAI researcher known for his popular AI essays).
The fund, which peaked at $45 billion, was heavily long on AI compute and memory stocks like SK Hynix and CoreWeave while shorting software names like Adobe. A double-sided bet against him triggered margin calls, forcing prime brokers to liquidate his assets, which were later bought by Citadel. Marcus noted that while Aschenbrenner was probably right about the massive expansion in AI infrastructure demand, he was killed by leverage; the demand just didn't materialize fast enough to outlast his margin calls.
Related event: Ex-OpenAI Staffer's AI Hedge Fund Blows Up, Citadel Takes Over $16B(41 posts)→
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