Situational Awareness

Broadcom puts — $1.01B notional. The custom-ASIC short. AVGO is the largest pure-play in the hyperscaler-custom-silicon thesis (Google TPU, Meta MTIA). Pairs with the NVDA short as a 1-2 on "the chip-bull narrative is everywhere."

AMD puts — $969M notional on 4.8M underlying. The MI300/MI350 short. AMD is the "NVDA alternative" trade that's been chased by every fund chasing GPU exposure; Aschenbrenner is on the other side at full size.

Bloom Energy long shares — solid-oxide fuel cells for on-site AI datacenter power. The single largest long position, carried over from Q4 2025 (was $876M, now $879M — held flat through the entire chip-short pivot). Pairs with a $55M BE call overlay at rank 23. The AI-power thesis anchor.

SanDisk long shares — $724M, TRIPLED from Q4 2025 ($250M). The NAND-flash leg of the AI-memory supercycle, post-WDC spinoff. Combined with the $389M SNDK call overlay at rank 15, total SanDisk exposure is $1.11B = 8.1% of the entire book. The single highest-conviction long-side move this quarter.

Micron puts — $584M notional. Read alongside the $422M MU calls at rank 12, this is a STRADDLE: long volatility, not directionally short. Implied view: MU prints big either direction in Q2/Q3 (HBM ramp / data-center NAND cycle), the market has the wrong vol surface.

CoreWeave long shares — $556M. The neocloud / GPU-as-a-service leg. Held through the pivot but trimmed from Q4 ($437M long + $774M calls in Q4 = $1.21B aggregate → $556M long + $141M calls in Q1 = $697M aggregate). Position cut roughly 40% even though the thesis is unchanged — partial profit-taking or risk-budget reallocation toward the new shorts.

Taiwan Semiconductor puts — $535M notional. Read alongside the $355M TSM calls at rank 16, this is the second STRADDLE in the book. Implied view: TSM's 3nm/2nm ramp + N2P pricing + geopolitical premium are mis-priced as a low-vol regime. The straddle is roughly delta-flat at filing date.

ASML puts — $494M notional. The EUV-monopoly short. ASML has been the cleanest "shovel" trade of the entire AI cycle; Aschenbrenner is shorting it at near-full size while keeping a token $6M long position (rank 39) — likely a settled-trade tag.

Micron calls — $422M notional, 1.25M underlying. The bullish leg of the MU straddle (paired with the $584M put at rank 8). Long-vol structure on memory cycle inflection.

IREN Limited — Australian-listed BTC miner that pivoted aggressively to AI HPC compute. INCREASED from Q4 2025 ($329M → $401M, +22%). Largest of the BTC-miner-conversion names by weight after CORZ.

Core Scientific — bitcoin miner being absorbed by CoreWeave under the GPU-datacenter conversion thesis. Activist position: 13D filed 2025-08-19 at 5.8% (17.7M shares), amended 2025-10-14 to 9.4% (28.8M shares). Held at the 9.4% line through Q1 2026 (26M shares). The only Aschenbrenner position requiring 5%+ ownership disclosure.

SanDisk calls — $389M notional, 612k underlying. The leveraged bullish overlay on the $724M SNDK long at rank 7. Combined SNDK exposure of $1.11B (8.1% of book) — the second highest-conviction position in the entire portfolio after BE.

Taiwan Semiconductor calls — $355M notional. The bullish leg of the TSM straddle (paired with the $535M put at rank 10). Long-vol structure on foundry cycle / geopolitics.

Applied Digital — purpose-built AI HPC datacenter operator (formerly a BTC miner). INCREASED from Q4 2025 ($278M → $320M, +15%). 5%+ ownership stake triggered a Schedule 13D 2025-08-19 (amended 2025-10-14) alongside the CORZ activist position.

Intel puts — $159M notional. NEW short this quarter. The $747M Intel CALL position from Q4 2025 (the foundry-turnaround bet) has been REVERSED: Q1 shows a $159M put + a $9M residual long (rank 35). Either Aschenbrenner gave up on the 18A foundry-comeback thesis, or this is a put-spread overlay against a much larger off-13F long.

Riot Platforms — Texas-based BTC miner with stranded-power assets that can be repurposed for AI HPC. INCREASED from Q4 2025 ($78M → $142M, +82%). Part of the BTC-miner-to-HPC basket; biggest percentage add among the miners this quarter.

CoreWeave calls — $141M notional. The leveraged overlay on the $556M long (rank 9). Cut hard from Q4 2025 ($774M calls → $141M calls, -82%) — the CRWV call overlay was the third-largest position in the entire Q4 book and has been mostly trimmed.

CleanSpark — BTC miner with disclosed HPC build pipeline. INCREASED from Q4 2025 ($17M → $104M, 6×). One of the most aggressive percentage adds among the miners; takes CLSK from a starter line to a meaningful position.

Solaris Energy Infrastructure — mobile gas-turbine power for datacenters. DECREASED from Q4 2025 ($86M → $62M, -27%). Part of the on-site-AI-power basket; the trim is consistent with the broader natural-gas-feedstock leg pullback this quarter (EQT, KRC, LBRT all closed).

Bloom Energy calls — $55M notional. The leveraged overlay on the $879M BE long (rank 6). Held roughly flat from Q4 2025 ($35M → $55M).

T1 Energy — NEW position this quarter. Solar/battery formerly known as FreyrBattery; pivoting to grid-scale storage for AI datacenter power smoothing. 10M shares acquired in Q1, $44M notional. Part of the on-site-AI-power thesis alongside BE, BW, PSIX, SEI.

Bitfarms — Canadian/international BTC miner. INCREASED from Q4 2025 ($16M → $39M, +140%). Part of the BTC-miner-to-HPC basket; one of the bigger percentage adds.

Bitdeer Technologies — Singapore-headquartered BTC miner / AI cloud builder. INCREASED from Q4 2025 ($20M → $30M, +50%). Part of the BTC-miner-to-HPC basket.

Power Solutions International — industrial engines and stationary power generators. INCREASED slightly from Q4 ($25M → $26M). Natural-gas gensets for behind-the-meter datacenter power.

Corning puts — $21M notional. NEW short. Corning makes optical fiber for AI cluster fabrics — the put position is small but ideologically loud, given the prior portfolio (Q4 LITE+COHR optical longs of $568M aggregate) was the optical-supercycle thesis. The optical leg has now flipped from $568M long to $21M short.

WhiteFiber — pure-play HPC datacenter / fiber infra operator. Held roughly flat from Q4 2025 ($28M → $21M).

AMD long shares — token $20M residual long. The real AMD exposure is the $969M short at rank 5; this is a settled-position tag or a trading-overlay remnant.

Babcock & Wilcox — boilers, power gen, advanced nuclear (Renaissance small modular reactors). Held flat from Q4 2025 ($9M → $20M, but reported flat share count). Part of the on-site-AI-power basket.

SharonAI Holdings — NEW position. IPO'd on NASDAQ February 2026 ($125M raised). Pure-play AI infrastructure / cloud-GPU operator targeting AI labs and hyperscalers; signed a $1.25B five-year cloud deal with ESDS in April 2026. The newest name in the book and a clean thematic fit alongside CRWV / IREN / APLD.

ProPetro — Permian pressure pumping. Held flat from Q4 2025 ($9M → $13M). The indirect AI-power-via-natural-gas thesis; LBRT and EQT were closed this quarter, leaving PUMP as the sole oilfield-services proxy.

VanEck Semiconductor ETF long shares — token $10M residual long against the $2.04B SMH short at rank 1. Settled-position tag or a basket trading overlay.

Intel long shares — $9M residual against the new $159M INTC put at rank 18. The Q4 2025 INTC bet was a $747M call (the foundry-turnaround thesis); the position has been fully reversed to net-short in Q1.

Taiwan Semi long shares — $8M residual. Settled-position tag against the much larger $535M put + $355M call straddle at ranks 10 and 16.

Infosys put — Indian IT-services short. CARRIED OVER from Q4 2025 (was $8.9M, now $6.8M — same share count, mark-to-market lower). The portfolio's only persistent non-semi short; the labor-automation-eats-IT-services hedge flagged in the "Situational Awareness" essays.

HIVE Digital Technologies — NEW position. Canadian BTC miner with HPC pivot disclosed. Smallest of the miner basket as a starter line.

ASML long shares — token $6M residual long against the $494M ASML short at rank 11.

Micron long shares — token $6M residual against the much larger MU put+call straddle at ranks 8 and 12.

Corning long shares — token sub-$1M residual against the $21M GLW put at rank 28.

NVIDIA long shares — token sub-$1M residual against the $1.57B NVDA put at rank 2. The smallest line in the book.