彭博报道 Citadel 折价接手 Situational Awareness 的 AI 股票组合，相关股票此前已反弹

It’s practically an adage on Wall Street by now: You know you’re in trouble when Ken Griffin calls.

This time the call came for Situational Awareness, a high-flying hedge fund in artificial intelligence that was suddenly crashing to earth. Few were surprised that Griffin leapt in to pick up the pieces at a discount. For decades, the billionaire has been turning other people’s problems — a market panic here, a hedge-fund blowup there — into gold for his investment giant Citadel.

“These aren’t charitable rescues,” says Bruno Schneller, managing partner at multifamily office Erlen Capital Management. At the very least, the quick maneuver, which Griffin pulled off inside 24 hours, will salvage a mediocre July for his flagship fund.

But this was just one of nearly a dozen instances, stretching all the way back to the early aughts, and involving such infamous blowups as Amaranth Advisors and Enron, when Griffin has swooped in like this.

Citadel’s Amaranth deal alone produced the kind of high-single digit return that the hedge fund would usually make over a six-month period, said one of the people. If Situational Awareness is anything like those past deals, it will likely be lucrative.

While it’s unclear exactly what equities Citadel purchased, many of the biggest names in Situational Awareness’ public book rallied Thursday. CoreWeave Inc. jumped nearly 22% that day, while Bloom Energy Corp. surged 26%.

What sets Citadel apart, industry figures say, is its almost preternatural ability to sniff out trouble — and then pounce. Its prowess in what is politely known as “crisis capital” has earned Citadel a reputation as one of Wall Street’s shrewdest investors. The hedge-fund mogul Cliff Asness was once asked how he felt when he got a call from Citadel after some of his investments went south.

“I looked up and saw the Valkyries coming and heard the Grim Reaper’s scythe knocking on my door,” Asness said in 2007 about a tumultuous period for quantitative investing. “I did my best to run to the light.”

Citadel’s latest conquest is helping it score a chunk of AI stocks. On Thursday, Griffin’s firm scooped up a sizable stock portfolio at a 10% discount from Situational Awareness, rescuing Leopold Aschenbrenner’s firm from a barrage of margin calls and from having to sell its coveted stake in the AI giant Anthropic.

Read More: Aschenbrenner Tried to Sell Private Stakes Before Stock Deal

Griffin’s move helped trigger a relief rally after markets were thrown into tumult at the prospect of the potential unraveling of a $45 billion, highly-levered and concentrated hedge fund.

The deal is also expected to bolster Citadel itself, which has had a tough month. Its flagship Wellington fund was up less than 50 basis points for the month through July 24, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified citing private details.

To be sure, it’s been a tough period for markets, with an AI rout hitting stocks globally. Parts have started to bounce back, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 Index gaining 3.4% Thursday.

A representative for Citadel declined to comment, while a Situational Awareness spokesperson had no immediate comment.

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Citadel approached Situational Awareness Wednesday evening and negotiated with the firm overnight, ultimately signing a contract in less than 24 hours before the market opened Thursday, said one of the people.

It was a quintessential Citadel play, and one that Griffin has refined to a science over the decades: see a firm in distress, swoop in fast, snag a great deal.

“Citadel isn’t acting as a white knight — it’s making calculated investments,” Schneller said. “Whether you describe that as being a savior or a vulture probably depends on your perspective, but it’s better understood as a sophisticated provider of crisis capital than either.”

Griffin has become so well-tuned to these types of transactions that his team often has a routine, according to people familiar with the matter. In past circumstances, he’s assembled a war room filled with some of the most senior executives including Co-Chief Investment Officer Pablo Salame, Chief Operating Officer Gerald Beeson, Chief Legal Officer Shawn Fagan and Perry Vais, who is head of equity quantitative research, said the people.

Eventually, Griffin taps a broader operational group at Citadel to clear and settle transactions, examine the cost and manage other logistics, the people said.

For investors, having Griffin himself swoop in is useful. Normally, investors will have to pay for the portfolio managers’ compensation, but in a situation where Griffin strikes the deal, investors typically won’t have to pay those expenses, said one of the people.

Not every Citadel bet has panned out well. In 2021, Citadel and Point72 Asset Management gave Gabe Plotkin a $2.75 billion cash infusion to try to save his Melvin Capital Management from a retail investor-fueled short squeeze. Melvin ultimately collapsed in 2022, returning capital back to investors — though Citadel didn’t lose money on the deal, according to one of the people familiar with the matter.

At times, Citadel’s prowess has helped it scoop up employees. In 2001, just hours after Enron filed for bankruptcy, Griffin snapped up the energy giant’s quant research team. He’s gone on to recruit teams of traders from distressed firms throwing in the towel: Visium Asset Management, Hutchin Hill Capital and Cumulus.

“The talent you want to hire is the talent you want to pull from someone else,” Griffin said in 2016.

Other times he’s been able to buy portfolios at discounts. In 2006, he scooped up natural gas positions from Amaranth Advisors, which had lost $6.6 billion and later shuttered.

And one year later on a Sunday morning in July, Sowood Capital Management realized its trades were in trouble and it needed to liquidate almost all of its portfolio before the market opened the next day. It reached out to Citadel, Griffin later recalled.

“We assembled a 50-person team as fast as we could. We flew eight people to Boston to facilitate due diligence and information sharing,” Griffin said, adding that acquiring Sowood’s entire $30 billion portfolio was going to be “a Herculean task.”

As the late hours hit, a senior point person from a competing buyer called Griffin saying they were going to call it a night and pick things in the morning, to which Griffin responded, “there will be nothing to pick up in the morning.”

By 6 a.m., before the market opened, Citadel had snapped up most of Sowood’s assets.

“They will likely make a lot of money on Situational Awareness,” said J. Dennis Jean-Jacques, founder of hedge fund Ocean Park Investments. “The question is can you be patient while you’re waiting for the fat pitch, and can you going in swinging when the fat pitch comes? Citadel can and does.”

Melvin Capital2021Citadel and Point72 injected $2.75 billion into Melvin after its short bets, including on GameStop, triggered steep losses. It ultimately collapsed the following year.Cumulus2018Citadel hired the Cumulus founder and about 20 traders and analysts as the firm shuttered.Hutchin Hill Capital2018Citadel snapped up Hutchin’s 10-person quant team after the firm closed down.Visium Asset Management2016Citadel hired 17 money managers as Visium was winding down.E*Trade Financial Corp.2007After E*Trade shares plunged and customers withdrew, Citadel invested about $2.6 billion, taking a 17% stake in the company and buying asset-backed securities with a face value of $3 billion for 27 cents on the dollar.Sowood Capital Management2007Citadel bought most of Sowood’s assets after two of its funds lost more than 50% on credit investments.Amaranth Advisors2006Citadel bought natural gas positions from Amaranth after the firm lost $6.6 billion.Enron2001Griffin said he hired Enron’s quant research group “within hours” of the energy company’s bankruptcy filing.