Leopold Aschenbrenner, the former OpenAI researcher who gained prominence for warning about China and advanced AI model security risks, has dramatically reshaped his investment thesis toward cryptocurrency mining infrastructure. His latest 13F filing reveals equity exposure expanded from $5.5 billion at the end of 2025 to $13.67 billion by March 31, with bitcoin miners comprising the core of his long positions.

Market Context

The move comes as bitcoin miners have increasingly pivoted their narratives toward AI infrastructure services. Companies like Core Scientific, Riot Platforms and CleanSpark have highlighted their existing access to power contracts and large-scale facilities as competitive advantages in serving compute-intensive AI workloads. Meanwhile, semiconductor stocks including Nvidia and Broadcom have seen significant institutional accumulation over the past two years, making Aschenbrenner's put positions against them particularly notable.

Analysis

Aschenbrenner's thesis centers on the premise that companies controlling electricity generation and data center capacity represent a scarcer resource than chip manufacturers in the AI buildout phase. Bitcoin miners already possess key assets: power purchase agreements, land for facilities, cooling infrastructure and grid connectivity. Their existing operations can be repurposed to house GPU clusters for AI training and inference workloads.

The former OpenAI researcher is also betting that semiconductor margins face pressure as custom silicon proliferates among hyperscalers. His $7.46 billion in put options against chip-related equities suggests he believes the current valuation premium for Nvidia, Broadcom and Oracle may be vulnerable to compression. The positions were disclosed alongside his expanded stakes in bitcoin miners including IREN, Core Scientific (CORZ), Riot Platforms (RIOT), CleanSpark (CLSK), Bitfarms (BITF), Bitdeer (BTDR) and Hive Digital (HIVE).

Aschenbrenner also holds positions in Bloom Energy (BE), SanDisk (SNDK) and cloud provider CoreWeave (CRWV), further cementing his focus on physical infrastructure over chip manufacturing. The portfolio reflects a supply-chain view of AI buildout where power availability may become the binding constraint.

Key Numbers

- $13.67 billion in disclosed equity exposure as of March 31, up from $5.5 billion at end of 2025

- $7.46 billion in put options against semiconductor companies and chip ETFs

- $2.04 billion put position against VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH)

- $1.57 billion put position against Nvidia (NVDA)

- Over $1 billion combined in puts on Oracle (ORCL) and Broadcom (AVGO)

- Bitcoin trading near $76,866 during the filing period

What to Watch

Watch for how bitcoin miners communicate AI services revenue in upcoming earnings calls. Core Scientific has existing agreements with CoreWeave for GPU hosting, while Riot Platforms and CleanSpark have both announced data center conversion initiatives. The performance of Aschenbrenner's semiconductor puts will test whether the market views chip valuations as stretched relative to infrastructure plays.