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Ken Griffin’s hedge fund has executed more than $4bn worth of block trades in recent weeks

Citadel has sold more than 80 per cent of the portfolio it took on from buying the majority of Situational Awareness’s stock bets last month after the AI-focused hedge fund was almost toppled by the recent tech sell-off.

Ken Griffin’s hedge fund told investors on Friday that it had offloaded most of the “aggregate risk” from Situational Awareness’s book, having completed almost 100 block trades that amounted to more than $4bn in recent weeks to unload the positions, according to a letter seen by the FT.

The billions of dollars’ worth of stock sales in just three weeks suggest that Citadel is likely to have flipped the positions for a sizeable profit as tech stocks have widely recovered since Griffin sealed the deal with Situational Awareness at the end of July.

Citadel’s sudden swoop for the Situational Awareness stock portfolio marked one of the largest rescue deals in Wall Street history, and a dramatic episode in a volatile period for equities as investors rushed into stocks linked to AI before being gripped by anxiety that the boom in the sector was overblown.

A weeks-long sell-off of tech stocks in July spurred widespread pain on Wall Street. Situational Awareness, the hedge fund run by 24-year-old OpenAI alumnus Leopold Aschenbrenner, emerged as its biggest casualty.

The AI-focused fund had amassed well over $20bn in assets in just two years, despite the fact that its founder had no experience on Wall Street.

Aschenbrenner, who was fired by OpenAI, boasted extensive connections in Silicon Valley and was hailed by some as a prodigy and the “Nostradamus of AI”.

As he faced losses in July’s sell-off, Aschenbrenner first tried to raise additional funds through individual asset sales, but then pivoted to selling the majority of his stock holdings to Griffin’s firm in a deal that was pulled together in just 24 hours.

Citadel purchased the positions at a roughly 10 per cent discount, the FT has previously reported, betting that it could afford to hold the stocks until the market steadied. Shares of Situational Awareness’s biggest holdings, including chipmakers Sandisk and Micron, quickly recovered, giving Griffin a window to turn a rapid profit.

The deal was also in some ways a self-fulfilling prophecy. Griffin’s agreement to buy Aschenbrenner’s stock book stymied fears of more forced selling on Wall Street, which helped to boost share prices across the tech industry.

Citadel’s subsequent transactions to exit these positions included some of the largest block trades of the year, the firm said. Griffin has not told investors how much the stock portfolio was worth or how much the firm paid for the positions.

Citadel beat out rivals including Millennium Management for the stock book. The secretive trading shop Jane Street, which also vied for Situational Awareness’s assets, was one of the hedge fund’s investors.

Jane Street posted a roughly $15bn loss in July after the turmoil.

Griffin rarely writes letters to investors. His message this week was a testament to the extraordinary nature of the rapid deal he cut with Situational Awareness last month.

“Over our nearly thirty-six-year history, we have prided ourselves on being front-footed and proactive during periods of market dislocation,” Griffin wrote. The firm’s flagship fund was up 6 per cent in July, while many of its rivals lost money or were relatively flat.

“Only Citadel could have delivered a solution of this scale on this timeline,” he added.

Citadel has stepped in before to buy other hedge funds’ positions when they ran into trouble. In 2006, the firm bought Amaranth Advisors’ entire trading book alongside JPMorgan Chase after the fund blew up from bad bets on natural gas. And a year later, Griffin’s firm pulled a similar stunt, buying Sowood Capital Management’s credit portfolio when it collapsed.

Yet unlike these past hedge fund implosions, Situational Awareness survived the bruising fire sale. The firm held on to its private stakes, including its valuable position in Anthropic, and a small public equity book.

Aschenbrenner told investors earlier this month that despite the recent turbulence, capped by the emergency transaction with Griffin, the firm was still up 80 per cent for the year. Situational Awareness had earlier this year told investors it was up more than 400 per cent for the first six months of the year.

Waymo doubles spending on lobbying in robotaxi battle with Uber

Alphabet-owned company is seeking to persuade US regulators to clear a path for fully autonomous taxi services

Waymo has sharply increased its lobbying spending as it seeks to persuade US regulators to clear a path for fully autonomous taxi services, intensifying its battle with rival Uber over the future of robotaxis.

The Alphabet-owned company spent more than $1mn between April and June on lobbying the federal government, more than double its outlay a year earlier, according to filings. That put Waymo’s spending close to Uber’s and well ahead of rivals including Amazon’s Zoox and Tesla.

The rise in lobbying comes as Waymo and Uber push competing visions for the future of ride-hailing. Waymo wants a faster route to fully driverless commercial services, while Uber is advocating a staggered rollout in which robotaxis operate alongside human drivers.

Their diverging legislative strategies have contributed to their relationship souring. The FT reported last month that Waymo was exploring options to exit its Uber partnership in Austin and Atlanta, where the ride-hailing group operates its services.

“They’ve both stepped up lobbying and are pushing up against each other, which now appears to be hastening their divorce,” said Walter Piecyk, an analyst at LightShed Partners.

Both companies are lobbying aggressively in several US states and Washington DC after pushback stalled their expansion to markets including New York and Chicago, as politicians and labour groups warn the technology could displace drivers and undercut existing services.

In the first six months of 2026, Waymo increased its spending by 93 per cent from the year before to slightly more than $2mn. It has called for a federal framework to ease the rollout of robotaxis. In May, it hired law firm Greenberg Traurig to lobby on its behalf, adding to a roster of several other Washington firms.

At the local level, the robotaxi operator has outspent both Uber and Zoox in lobbying legislators in the District of Columbia. It has pressed local regulators to allow robotaxi services in the nation’s capital, including by inviting residents earlier this year to write in support of its rollout.

In New York state, Waymo has spent more than half a million dollars so far this year — more than double Uber’s lobbying spend — as it seeks a foothold in one of the largest taxi markets.

Its lobbying in the state intensified after Governor Kathy Hochul earlier this year walked back proposals that would have allowed autonomous vehicle companies to run services across most of the state.

Waymo offered to set up a $20mn fund to support drivers affected by the technology’s deployment, according to people familiar with the matter.

In New Jersey, it has engaged lawmakers who are exploring a three-year pilot programme to test deployments.

Waymo said in a statement that it was advocating for the rollout of autonomous vehicles and was not pursuing measures that would limit competitors or “prescribe” how the technology was deployed.

Uber, meanwhile, has been racing to make up lost ground in AVs after abandoning its in-house self-driving effort in 2020, committing more than $10bn over the past year through equity stakes and robotaxi fleet agreements.

The ride-hailing group has warned several Democratic-led states against a carte blanche rollout and has instead lobbied for so-called hybrid networks that route rides to both human drivers and autonomous vehicles.

In New Jersey, Uber lobbyists have proposed that any platform offering robotaxi services also use human drivers for at least 85 per cent of all rides during a three-year pilot programme.

Critics have accused Uber of seeking regulatory capture by attempting to keep rides flowing through its platform as it grapples with rising competition.

Uber has said it is false that they were “anti-AV or seeking to slow AV deployment”. It said hybrid networks “get the technology to consumers sooner while giving policymakers a practical framework to manage the transition”.

Vectus Air Defense Systems marks former Navy Seal’s latest foray into private military and security services

Private military contractor Erik Prince has launched a new company that will provide hardware and operational management for air-defence systems in partnership with Ukrainian drone software group Swarmer, which he also backs.

Vectus Air Defense Systems marks Blackwater founder Prince’s latest foray into private military and security services. He has become a global security industry entrepreneur since the 2010 sale of the private contractor, which drew public anger over America’s use of excessive force by private contractors in Iraq.

The new venture will design, install and operate “layered air-defence networks” for customers under multiyear contracts, in what the company describes as an “air defence as a service” model.

Prince is non-executive chair of Swarmer, which went public in March. Swarmer has taken a 20 per cent equity stake in Vectus, while Prince’s representative said he owned the rest. There were discussions about “bringing in one or two additional investors” to the venture, he said.

Promoted as a cost-effective alternative to anti-ballistic missiles like the Patriot used against cheap drones in the Middle East conflict, Vectus’s systems would combine US, Ukrainian, Israeli and other technologies, including sensors, electronic warfare, interceptor drones and rapid-firing large-calibre guns.

“It’s clear that the threat is evolving rapidly and the demand for a private-sector solution is very strong,” Prince said in a statement. “We need to achieve a drastic reduction in the cost of defence.”

Swarmer, which says its software has supported more than 100,000 combat missions in Ukraine, will help develop counter-drone systems for the company, including technology allowing interceptor drones to operate in swarms.

“The economics of aerial threats have fundamentally changed,” Alex Fink, Swarmer’s president and US chief executive, said in a statement. “Defending against these threats requires a new cost structure.”

Prince has spent the past year meeting technology suppliers and potential customers in Ukraine, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America, said his spokesperson. “The service is best suited to large commercial/civilian assets, which don’t want to or can’t depend entirely on government,” he said.

The former Navy SEAL has run various ventures including recruiting mercenaries for Abu Dhabi, defending ships against Somali pirates, and even advising the Chinese government on logistics and security for its overseas projects. Prince also runs Vectus Global, a private security company that runs anti-gang operations in Haiti and operates in the Democratic Republic of Congo defending mines. The company is separate from Vectus Air Defence.

Deal cements chip maker’s role in developing data-center projects at earliest stages

Nvidia NVDA -0.33%decrease; down pointing triangle is in advanced discussions to make an investment in Cloverleaf Infrastructure, a company that arranges power for data-center projects, according to people familiar with the deal.

The transaction could be announced as soon as Friday morning, the people said. The exact terms of the deal couldn’t be immediately learned, but Nvidia is expected to invest several hundred million dollars, one of the people said.

In recent months, Cloverleaf had been working with JPMorgan Chase on strategic options, including a potential sale of the business, according to people familiar with the deal. Cloverleaf raised $300 million in 2024, the year it was founded, from energy investors NGP and Sandbrook Capital.

Cloverleaf’s specialty is signing power agreements with utilities so that developers can build on land with access to reliable power. Over the past two years, it has sold projects comprising more than 7 gigawatts of powered land to data-center developers, including sites in Wisconsin for Oracle and OpenAI. The firm has a pipeline of more than 10 gigawatts of power, according to the people.

The Cloverleaf deal helps cement Nvidia’s growing role in supporting the data-center ecosystem at the earliest stages of development. By backing power companies years ahead of when their projects are ready, Nvidia is trying to ensure there will be enough data-center capacity for its products in the future.

This week, Nvidia took an equity stake in SoftBank’s SB Energy, a deal tied to a megacampus in Ohio that OpenAI leased for 20 years.

Earlier this year, Nvidia made a $2 billion investment into Lancium, the power developer behind a campus in Abilene, Texas, where OpenAI rents computing capacity from Oracle, according to people familiar with that deal.

Nvidia now owns 20% of the firm, and its stake could reach 28% following an additional $1 billion investment.

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