1,000% Return in Two Years... Young Genius Investor's AI Forecast Essay Surprises [Tech Talk]

Leopold Aschenbrenner, Born in 2001
From OpenAI Dismissal to Investor Transformation
A 'Prophetic' AI Investment Strategy... The Next-Generation Guru

Editor's NoteThis series explains, in simple terms, the essential yet often unfamiliar technologies that shape our daily lives, ranging from AI and semiconductors to telecommunications and biotechnology.

The artificial intelligence (AI) boom has sent the stock prices of numerous tech companies, including Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, soaring. Amid this explosive growth, who has reaped the highest returns in the current AI bull market?

There is a rising star who has posted a cumulative return of 1,000% over the past two years. His name is Leopold Aschenbrenner. Although he was born in 2001 and is only in his twenties, he leads the hedge fund Situational Awareness (SA), which manages assets worth around 30 trillion won.

A 1,000% Return in Just Two Years... The New Investment Star of the AI Era

AI investor Leopold Aschenbrenner. Captured during a 2024 interview. YouTube screenshot

While hedge funds are known for their aggressive asset management, SA has especially stood out during this AI boom. Since its establishment in September 2024, SA has posted returns exceeding 1,000% through the first quarter of this year, and its current assets under management (AUM) are reported to have surpassed $20 billion (about 30 trillion won).

So, which stocks delivered that 1,000% return? SA focused on companies related to AI data centers. Its investments have included not only semiconductor manufacturers and data center constructors, but also energy equipment manufacturers, which are expected to become one of the biggest bottlenecks for AI in the future.

However, SA does not always just buy AI-related stocks. If it deems the market overheated, the fund also bets on price declines. In fact, in its first-quarter disclosure, SA revealed that it had purchased put options on leading AI companies, such as Nvidia, drawing attention. Thanks to SA's stellar performance, trading platforms and financial magazines have labeled the firm with nicknames such as "the prophet," "rising star," and "next-generation stock guru."

Revealing Investment Strategy Through a Prophetic Essay on AI

Essay "Situation Awareness: The Next Decade" for 2024 published as Aschenbrenner started investing. Homepage screenshot

Aschenbrenner, the founder of SA, is a German national born in 2001 and currently resides in the United States, focusing solely on investment. However, his first career was as an AI researcher. In 2023, he joined OpenAI's Superalignment division, which included Ilya Sutskever, another star researcher at OpenAI.

But Aschenbrenner was dismissed from the company in less than a year, accused of leaking company information to external parties. Within just a few months, he established SA and transformed himself from a researcher into an investor.

One of the main reasons Aschenbrenner is so highly regarded is the 165-page essay he released when founding SA. Titled "Situational Awareness: A Decade Ahead," the report provided detailed predictions about what would happen in the AI industry over the next 10 years, what technologies would emerge, and how competition among companies would unfold.

In the essay, he argued, "Many analysts predict that the current year (2024) will be the peak of AI technology," adding, "They are simply ignoring reality. They view AI as an overhyped trend, a way to maintain existing businesses, or at best, as a technology on the scale of the internet." He went on to say, "Soon, the world will wake up," and claimed, "There are hundreds of people in AI research labs with genuine 'situational awareness.' They have accurately predicted the advancement of AI over the past several years."

OpenAI's Super Large AI Data Center. OpenAI Website

Aschenbrenner also forecast that AI-related revenues would surge, resulting in the construction of data centers and power plants worth trillions of dollars. He predicted that the advancement of AI would deepen conflicts among world powers such as the United States and China, and that cyber security issues would come to the fore due to concerns over AI-driven hacking. As of 2026, two years later, Aschenbrenner's analysis has proven to be entirely accurate so far.

SK hynix, Energy, and More... Relentless Aggressive Investments

Having joined the ranks of billionaire investors in just two years, Aschenbrenner is not letting up. On July 6, he expressed his intention, along with other hedge funds and asset management firms, to purchase approximately $7 billion worth of SK hynix American Depositary Receipts (ADRs).

He has also invested in Bloom Energy, a U.S. clean fuel cell company, and increased his stake in cryptocurrency mining firms that have transitioned to data center construction. Aschenbrenner's belief that global investment in AI is only beginning to accelerate appears unchanged.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.