Leopold Aschenbrenner’s hedge fund, Situational Awareness, tried to sell part of its Anthropic holding in an overnight deal on the afternoon of Wednesday, July 29, according to David Mann, chief executive of the Mannsion Group. Mann said he received a call while heading to LaGuardia Airport from someone working on behalf of the fund asking whether he wanted to buy a piece of its stake in Anthropic, the AI company. Mann said the approach signaled distress because investors typically do not rush to sell pre-IPO shares in a company he described as being valued at nearly $1 trillion unless they need liquidity. He said Aschenbrenner was being forced to sell and was seeking cash by sounding out potential buyers.