Leopold Aschenbrenner, once lauded as the ‘Nostradamus of AI,’ faced the unraveling of his $45 billion Situational Awareness hedge fund just as his wedding guests began arriving. The 24-year-old investor, who built his fortune by investing heavily in AI stocks, had amassed significant wealth and prestige.

However, Aschenbrenner's fund teetered due to excessive leverage taken to finance his AI bets. As the value of his portfolio plummeted, he desperately sought to raise capital, approaching major hedge funds and engaging in a fire sale of assets, including billions of dollars in holdings to Ken Griffin’s Citadel.

Having graduated from Columbia University at 19, Aschenbrenner was an early proponent of effective altruism. He previously worked at Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX and at OpenAI, focusing on AI superalignment. After his departure from OpenAI, he published a widely circulated essay predicting AI's future development.