Ken Griffin's Citadel Posts Strong July Gains Led by Wellington and Tactical Funds

Ken Griffin's Citadel posted strong gains across its major hedge funds in July, helped by a recovery in risk assets and a discounted purchase of assets from the collapse of Leopold Aschenbrenner's Situational Awareness to end the month, according to a person familiar with the firm's performance.

Citadel's flagship multistrategy Wellington fund, the firm's largest, returned 5.9% in July, marking its best monthly performance since 2022 and pushing 2026 gains to 12%, the person said. The tactical trading fund, which combines discretionary equity investing with quantitative strategies, gained 11.1% in July and is up 27% on the year. The equities fund advanced 14.2% last month, bringing 2026 return to 27%. Tactical fund and equities fund both had its best month ever. The person asked not to be identified discussing confidential performance figures.

The July gains came after Citadel acquired the bulk of the public-stock portfolio formerly held by Situational Awareness late last month, following the hedge fund's rapid unraveling after steep losses triggered margin calls and forced asset sales. Citadel purchased many of the holdings at a significant discount, positioning the firm to benefit as markets rebounded into the month-end.

Situational Awareness, founded by former OpenAI researcher Leopold Aschenbrenner, was forced to unwind many of its positions after a sharp reversal in artificial intelligence trades left it bleeding on both sides of its book. The firm had accumulated sizable stakes in AI infrastructure companies while betting against software stocks, a strategy that backfired as software shares rallied and AI hardware names slumped.

Several of the fund's prime brokers worked to reduce positions in an orderly fashion as Situational Awareness sought to meet margin requirements. Citadel emerged as one of the largest buyers of the portfolio, taking advantage of one of the year's biggest forced liquidations.

Stocks such as Nebius and Micron that Aschenbrenner's fund owned rebounded in the final days of July following a brutal month with many traders saying the fund's near collapse and rescue move by Citadel was a clearing event that caused short sellers to take profits.

Citadel managed about $71 billion in assets as of July 1 and has often used periods of market dislocation to deploy capital into distressed or forced-selling situations.

Citadel declined to comment.