Citadel's flagship fund surges 6% in July after scooping up distressed AI portfolio at a discount

When a $45 billion hedge fund implodes overnight, someone’s going to pick up the pieces. In this case, that someone was Ken Griffin.

The move pushed Wellington’s year-to-date return to 12%.

How Situational Awareness went from $45 billion to forced seller

Situational Awareness had grown to a peak of $45 billion in assets under management earlier in 2026.

A broad sell-off in AI infrastructure stocks hammered the fund’s leveraged positions, resulting in a staggering 67% drawdown. The margin pressure became untenable. Situational Awareness was forced to divest the majority of its public equities portfolio, which included significant positions in companies like SK Hynix, Bloom Energy, and CoreWeave. The fund retained its private investments, notably a stake in Anthropic, but the public book had to go.