Goldman Sachs earned over $200M in fees in 2026 by lending to the hedge fund Situational Awareness, people familiar with the matter told the Financial Times. At its peak, the AI-focused hedge fund founded by former OpenAI researcher Leopold Aschenbrenner in 2024 was a major client of Wall Street banks including Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and JPMorgan Chase, and it had become the biggest prime brokerage client at Goldman Sachs and one of its biggest overall clients in the trading division this year. The fund collapsed in July after rising to prominence through a series of highly lucrative bets on AI. Banks that handled Situational Awareness' trading and lent it borrowed money, including Goldman Sachs as one of the main lenders before its losses, were being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission, which asked for details about the fund's timing of trades and its communications with lenders about the money it was borrowing. Situational Awareness remains a Goldman client, according to the newspaper.
Goldman Sachs Group IncGoldman earned over $200M in fees lending to Situational Awareness and it was its biggest prime brokerage client.
Bank of America Corp
Citigroup Inc.
JPMorgan Chase & Co