Goldman Sachs has generated more than $200m in fees this year from Situational Awareness, making the two-year-old AI-focused hedge fund the investment bank’s largest prime brokerage client among hedge funds, according to a report by the Financial Times citing unnamed people familiar with the matter.

The scale of the relationship highlights how quickly Situational Awareness has grown since being founded in 2024 by Leopold Aschenbrenner, a former OpenAI researcher with no previous trading experience.

The fund was among the biggest clients of Goldman’s trading division this year, alongside established multi-strategy firms such as Citadel and Millennium, the people said. Goldman and Situational Awareness reportedly declined to comment.

The fees have been driven by the rapid expansion of Situational Awareness and the highly leveraged nature of some of its trading strategies. Aschenbrenner’s fund initially generated returns of more than 400% and grew from several hundred million dollars of assets at launch to more than $20bn.

However, a sharp selloff in stocks linked to artificial intelligence subsequently caused substantial losses. Borrowing from investment banks to increase the size of its positions amplified the impact of the market decline.

Situational Awareness ultimately sold most of its public-market positions, previously estimated to be worth about $16bn, to Citadel, the hedge fund firm founded by Ken Griffin.

Goldman was among the fund’s principal lenders. JPMorgan Chase also provided financing but subsequently stopped lending to Situational Awareness following the losses, according to earlier reports.

Aschenbrenner told investors in July that the fund would stop using borrowed money to increase the size of its investment positions. That decision is expected to reduce the scale of future financing fees generated for Goldman, although the bank has already collected more than $200m during 2026.

Situational Awareness remains a Goldman client, while Aschenbrenner has also established a trading relationship with technology-focused brokerage Clear Street.

Following the sale of its public-market portfolio, Aschenbrenner said he intended to continue investing and apply the lessons from the losses. The fund has since begun building new positions in technology stocks.