Leopold Aschenbrenner Bets on SanDisk (SNDKB) Call Options After $35B Fund Wipeout

SNDKB in Aschenbrenner's Options Comeback

Six weeks after leveraged AI bets nearly destroyed his hedge fund, former OpenAI researcher Leopold Aschenbrenner is putting capital back into the same trade — and SanDisk (SNDKB) is among the names on the list. Situational Awareness, Aschenbrenner's fund, purchased call options on SanDisk, AMD, Bloom Energy, CoreWeave and SK Hynix, according to people familiar with the positions. The trades ran from late last week into this week. Word of the re-entry surfaced in a post on X by analyst Shay Boloor, who noted the fund was building significant stakes in the AI supply chain again after blowing up earlier this year.

a post on Xhttps://x.com/StockSavvyShay/status/2098406674373689461?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Aschenbrenner first gained prominence for a 2024 essay arguing that artificial intelligence could reach human-level intelligence by 2027. He structured his investment vehicle around that thesis, backing companies that supply the computing capacity and electricity the AI buildout requires — memory and storage makers such as SanDisk sit squarely in that chain, which is why SNDKB's price action has become a proxy for the fund's fortunes.

The structure of the new bet matters. Call options give buyers the right to purchase shares at a fixed price before an expiration date, and when they are paid for upfront without borrowing, maximum losses are capped at the premium paid. That is a sharp contrast with the fund's earlier approach, where borrowed capital — unlike a crypto flash loan, which returns principal within a single transaction — magnified drawdowns beyond what the fund could absorb. The premium can still evaporate entirely if the contracts expire worthless, putting a hard deadline on the payoff. It remains undisclosed whether Aschenbrenner is deploying surviving cash or fresh investor money. Either way, the timing is notable: sentiment toward AI-linked names, SNDKB included, has been fragile, and the fund is re-entering through instruments that reward being early rather than being patient.

What July Cost Situational Awareness

The scale of the earlier damage explains why the re-entry is drawing scrutiny. In July, falling share prices combined with leverage produced margin demands the fund could not meet, and assets collapsed from a peak above $45 billion to roughly $10 billion — a drawdown of about $35 billion. Latecomers to the AI trade who bought the top effectively served as exit liquidity as the unwind accelerated. The wreckage was cleared at a discount: Ken Griffin's Citadel acquired the distressed holdings, while the fund retained its private investments, including a stake in Anthropic. The SEC subsequently subpoenaed Wall Street banks over their dealings with Situational Awareness; the reported inquiry carried no allegation of wrongdoing.

Attention has also turned to the other side of the trade. On Friday, television analyst Jim Cramer observed that “someone is shooting against all the Situational Stocks.” Recent positioning data shows outstanding put options on AMD recently outnumbered calls, though such contracts can reflect investors hedging existing holdings rather than outright bearish conviction. The listed names split on Friday: Bloom Energy climbed nearly 7%, AMD gained almost 3%, while SanDisk and CoreWeave declined. Options desks note that deep liquidity pools in single-name equity options allow positions of this size to be accumulated quietly, so the full extent of the book will only emerge over time. Whether the second attempt at the AI infrastructure trade succeeds — or the fund becomes a case study in fighting a bear market — will depend on how the sector trades into the options' expiration dates. Readers tracking the market in real time can follow live spot and futures prices on Binance.

observedhttps://x.com/jimcramer/status/2098457645556335103

$1,806 Resistance in Focus for SNDKB

COINOTAG's proprietary 42-indicator composite S/R scoring engine rates SNDKB's nearest resistance at $1,648.29 a 67/100, driven by Ichimoku Senkou B, the Cloud Top and the 0.500 Fibonacci, with the stronger $1,806.63 ceiling scoring 70/100 on R2, Donchian Upper and Swing High confluence. Nearest support at $1,545.38 carries 62/100 (Fibo 0.382, ATR Lower, S3). Spot trades at $1,630.53, down 3.89% in 24 hours, with RSI at 51.62 and a bullish MACD signal inside a broader uptrend. Holding the $1,623 pivot (BB Middle, SMA 20, Kijun; 39/100) keeps the path toward $1,806.63 intact; a daily close below $1,545.38 would invalidate the bullish structure. The Fear & Greed Index reads 56/100, in Greed territory.