The Securities and Exchange Commission has subpoenaed several major Wall Street banks, including Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Citigroup, and Bank of America, over their lending to the AI-focused hedge fund Situational Awareness. The probe seeks detailed information about the fund’s trades and communications with its lenders during the recent tech sell-off. Situational Awareness, founded by 24-year-old Leopold Aschenbrenner, an OpenAI alumnus, grew to over $20 billion in assets in under two years using leveraged bets on AI-linked stocks.

The fund suffered steep losses in July’s tech downturn and was forced to sell most of its holdings to Citadel in a 24-hour emergency transaction. Aschenbrenner took full responsibility and said the fund would stop borrowing from banks for its bets. Citadel purchased the positions at roughly a 10% discount.

The SEC, Citadel, and the banks involved declined to comment, with one source noting the probe remains in the information-gathering stage. The New York Times first reported the subpoenas.