With Situational Awareness AI deal, Citadel's Griffin rides to the rescue again

July 31 : When rival hedge funds face catastrophic losses, billionaire investor Ken Griffin has a habit of identifying opportunities and showing up with a checkbook.Citadel's founder this week reprised his role as one of Wall Street's rescue buyers, stepping in to salvage California hedge fund Situational Awareness as it buckled under souring bets on artificial intelligence stocks.Amid market rumblings that at least one firm was in trouble, Griffin, 57, assembled his top lieutenants to investigate, according to five people with knowledge of the matter. By Wednesday morning, Citadel executives had reached out to Situational Awareness, and Griffin spoke directly with Leopold Aschenbrenner, the fund's young founder and a former OpenAI researcher. Together with Citadel co-Chief Investment Offi