The SEC has asked Wall Street banks for Situational Awareness records.

The US SEC has opened an information request on Situational Awareness, Leopold Aschenbrenner's AI hedge fund, after the July collapse.

The New York Times, via Reuters and TechCrunch, reported on Monday that the commission has subpoenaed Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Citigroup and Bank of America, the banks that lent to the fund and supervised its trades. The questions are about leverage, the timing of the trades that triggered margin calls, and communications with the fund. The government also told the banks to preserve any information about the fund. Situational Awareness has not been accused of wrongdoing. It told the Times that scrutiny of high-profile funds is expected, and that it will cooperate.

The fund, which this paper covered in Issue 7 after a Citadel fire sale, fell about 67 per cent in July.

The July story was a margin call. This is the regulator asking the lenders how that call was built.

Aschenbrenner ran a concentrated, levered book on AI infrastructure names, then had to sell the public book to Citadel when the stocks fell together. The subpoenas go to the prime brokers, not to a charge sheet against the fund. That is still a different kind of heat from a bad month and a fire-sale letter to LPs.

The probe is at the preserve-and-produce stage. No charges. Watch whether the banks or the fund get a Wells notice, or whether this stays a letter.