The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has subpoenaed Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Citibank for records on trade timing, borrowing leverage and communications with lenders after AI-focused hedge fund Situational Awareness’s near-collapse in July, when its portfolio fell about 67% and assets dropped from a peak of roughly $45 billion to around $10 billion. The New York Times reported the inquiry is still in an information-gathering phase focused on when margin calls were triggered and how leverage was discussed with financing banks; the SEC has not accused the fund or founder Leopold Aschenbrenner of wrongdoing, banks were told to preserve records, and all four banks declined to comment. Founded in 2024 by the former OpenAI researcher, the fund amplified concentrated AI-equity bets with bank borrowing reportedly as high as 400%, then faced a broad AI sell-off that forced an unwind of large positions including SK Hynix ADRs and CoreWeave, culminating in an emergency July 30 block sale of most public equities to Citadel at about a 10% discount. Aschenbrenner, who took full responsibility while managing investor calls during his wedding that day, said the firm will keep trading public equities but will no longer use bank borrowing, while retaining a potentially pivotal private stake in Anthropic; a Financial Times review found the multi-tens-of-billions vehicle ran with only four investment professionals and eight staff total.