Why this fired OpenAI employee is betting $1bn on Bitcoin miners

Bitcoin miners just got a billion-dollar vote of confidence from an unlikely source: a former OpenAI researcher. Leopold Aschenbrenner, a 24-year-old researcher who was fired by OpenAI in 2024 over an alleged information leak, placed a number of bets on the Bitcoin mining sector through his billion-dollar hedge fund, Situational Awareness LP. Situational Awareness LP is now worth $5.5 billion, with approximately $1 billion invested in Bitcoin miners, according to the fund’s latest SEC filing. Aschenbre ...