The last supper: the prodigy's last move.
Leopold Aschenbrenner sold the portfolio to Citadel, but his recent purchases reveal exactly where he wanted to be.
Leopold Aschenbrenner may have been forced to sell his entire portfolio to Citadel, and therefore the current 13F report does not necessarily reflect the positions he currently holds, but the purchases made during the last quarter still give us a glimpse into where he wanted to be positioned at that time, and what he believed were the main opportunities in the market.
The main purchases (by $ size) of Aschenbrenner:
Micron $MU - one of the largest purchases in the report, and also one of the largest holdings in the portfolio. The choice of Micron is particularly interesting due to the thesis surrounding the surge in demand for memory as a result of data centers and AI.
Advanced AI models require enormous amounts of memory, especially DRAM and HBM, so as investments in AI infrastructure continue to grow, the importance of memory companies also increases.
Aschenbrenner effectively increased exposure to one of the most critical layers in the AI supply chain.
SanDisk $SNDK - the second purchase that draws attention is SanDisk, which after the purchases became the largest holding in the portfolio, with 28.52%.
Here too, it's a bet on the memory market, but from a different angle than Micron, with significant exposure to the NAND and storage market.
The fact that SanDisk and Micron together accounted for more than 56% of the portfolio illustrates how convinced Aschenbrenner was by the memory thesis.
TSMC stock $TSM - Aschenbrenner also increased exposure to TSMC, the company at the heart of the world's advanced chip manufacturing supply chain.
The logic here is simple: if demand for AI continues to grow, more advanced chips need to be produced.
Therefore, TSMC is one of the key companies benefiting from the increase in computing power required for AI.
Navios $NBIS - one of the most interesting purchases in the report. Navios provides AI computing infrastructure, thus offering direct exposure to the growing need for GPUs and computing power for AI companies. More models, more users, and more AI applications mean a greater need for computing infrastructure. Aschenbrenner also opened a new position in Navios, which makes this purchase particularly interesting.
STM stock $STM - STM also entered the list of main purchases, and simultaneously became a new position in the portfolio. The entry into STM expands Aschenbrenner's exposure to the chip world beyond large AI companies, adding another link to the computing industry's supply chain.
A look at the new positions:
Beyond the large purchases, in Q2 Aschenbrenner opened new positions in 4 companies:
Navios $NBIS STM stock $STM Vishay stock $VSH Servers $CBRS
The common thread here is that the new purchases do not indicate a simple attempt to pick the 'next AI stock,' but rather a broader focus on the infrastructure that enables the continued growth of the sector.
What can actually be learned from the purchases?
Although Aschenbrenner no longer holds this portfolio today following the sale of the portfolio to Citadel, the 13F report still provides a very interesting glimpse into his perspective at that time. His new money flowed mainly towards:
His purchases are very, very concentrated and clear!
Memory and storage - $MU, $SNDK Chip manufacturing - $TSM, $STM AI computing infrastructure - $NBIS Electronic components and chips - $VSH Advanced technologies - $CBRS
And in our personal view, this is the most important part of the report.
Aschenbrenner did not just try to bet on who would build the best AI model, but on the companies that would provide the hardware, memory, manufacturing, and computing power that would allow this entire industry to continue to grow.