Citadel Discloses Bigger Core Scientific Position After Situational’s $226 Million Sale

Ken Griffin-controlled Citadel entities have disclosed a combined beneficial position of 20.85 million shares in Core Scientific (NASDAQ: CORZ), days after troubled AI hedge fund Situational Awareness sold more than 11.5 million shares of the data center operator through block trades.

The disclosures offer a securities-level glimpse into the movement of assets surrounding Citadel’s purchase of a large portion of Situational Awareness’s public-equity portfolio as reported last week. They don’t establish that Citadel bought the Core Scientific shares directly from the fund.

Citadel Securities Group LP and its general partner reported beneficial ownership of 15.65 million Core Scientific shares, or 4.9%, in a Schedule 13G filed Wednesday. Citadel Advisors LLC separately reported 5.2 million shares, or 1.6%. Griffin, who controls the entities, was deemed to beneficially own an aggregate 20.85 million shares, equal to 6.5% of the company. The holdings were measured as of the opening of trading on Aug. 5, according to the filing.

That represented an increase from March 31, when Griffin was deemed to own 12.79 million shares, or 4.1%. Citadel Advisors reported no Core Scientific position at that time, while the holdings associated with Citadel Securities totaled 12.79 million shares, an earlier Schedule 13G showed.

Situational Awareness, meanwhile, reported 14.09 million shares, or 4.4%, at the close of trading on Aug. 4. The fund said it still held 25.61 million shares, or 8.1%, on July 15. It fell below the 5% ownership threshold on Aug. 3, according to its Schedule 13D amendment.

An accompanying transaction exhibit showed that Situational Awareness sold two blocks of 5,759,539 shares each on Aug. 3, at weighted-average prices of $19.6896 and $19.4807. The transactions generated about $225.6 million before commissions and were made with unidentified, unaffiliated third parties. The fund also sold 400,000 shares over July 14 and July 15. The exhibit doesn’t name the buyers.

Situational Awareness had reported owning 26.01 million Core Scientific shares worth $389.1 million as of March 31. The position represented about 8.2% of shares then outstanding, according to its quarterly Form 13F holdings table.

The fund’s Aug. 3 sales and Citadel’s expanded disclosure overlap closely in timing and size. Griffin’s aggregate beneficial ownership increased by about 8.06 million shares from March 31, while Situational Awareness reduced its holding by about 11.92 million shares over the same broad period. But differences between the reporting dates, entities and types of instruments covered prevent the filings from proving a direct transfer.

The disclosures followed Citadel’s agreement to acquire a large portion of Situational Awareness’s roughly $16 billion public-equity book after the AI-focused fund suffered steep losses during a technology-stock selloff. The transaction was arranged rapidly as Situational Awareness sought fresh capital and reduced leveraged positions, according to Reuters. Axios also reported that the public-stock portfolio was sold to Citadel.

Situational Awareness was founded by former OpenAI researcher Leopold Aschenbrenner and had grown to more than $20 billion in assets under management after making concentrated bets on companies expected to benefit from AI investment. Reports of the Citadel transaction said the firm continued to hold private investments, including a stake in Anthropic.

Core Scientific fits squarely within that infrastructure thesis. The former bitcoin miner has been converting capacity to host high-density computing and AI workloads. In July, it announced 15-year agreements under which Advanced Micro Devices Inc. secured about 530 megawatts of capacity, with the option to expand the relationship to 2.5 gigawatts. Core Scientific said the initial agreements represented more than $14 billion of potential base contracted revenue. The company announcement helped reinforce its transition from cryptocurrency mining to AI data centers.

Core Scientific shares closed Wednesday at $21.77, down 4.6% for the session. The stock remained about 50% higher for the year but was roughly 25% below its June 2 closing peak, according to historical market data.