Leopold Aschenbrenner’s Situational Awareness hedge fund disclosed a 20% stake in SharonAI, an Australian AI data center provider, according to filings released in late June 2026. The stake consists of 5.4 million shares valued at approximately $490 million, making it one of Aschenbrenner’s largest single-company positions and signaling his confidence in the neocloud sector.
SharonAI operates as a neocloud provider, leasing data center capacity without owning the underlying land—a model similar to CoreWeave but with lower overhead. The company has grown its contracted megawatt capacity to 116 MW as of July 2026, up from initial projections of 50 MW, demonstrating faster expansion than expected. The company is still unprofitable but has secured major customers including Canva and unnamed U.S. firms.
Aschenbrenner’s investment came alongside a $1.6 billion funding round anchored by Situational Awareness and Oaktree Capital, announced in June 2026. The funding supported SharonAI’s expansion into AI infrastructure at a time when megawatt capacity has become a critical bottleneck for companies scaling AI products. SharonAI’s model allows it to expand without building data centers from scratch, reducing capital intensity compared to land-owning competitors.
The disclosure boosted SharonAI stock, which has more than doubled year to date. Aschenbrenner’s Situational Awareness fund itself has generated 270% returns in 2026 and returned over 2,000% in 2025, making his portfolio moves closely watched by growth investors. However, SharonAI represents a smaller portion of his overall fund—approximately 6% of capital—while his largest position, Nebius, makes up 40% of the portfolio.
Analysts note that SharonAI faces risks inherent to its neocloud model. Unlike CoreWeave, which operates roughly nine times more megawatts and commands a $45 billion market cap to SharonAI’s $2.5 billion, SharonAI does not own the land beneath its leased facilities. This exposes the company to rising lease renewal costs that could pressure margins. Landlords can negotiate higher rates when leases expire, a structural vulnerability that land-owning competitors like Nebius avoid.
If SharonAI were valued per megawatt at CoreWeave’s multiple, the stock would need to double from recent prices near $72. Aschenbrenner appears to be betting that SharonAI will accumulate megawatts faster than anticipated and improve profitability before lease pressures mount. His diversified approach to AI infrastructure—holding positions across neocloud, co-location, and land-owning models—suggests he is hedging against different scenarios in the race to build AI compute capacity.
Sources
- The Motley Fool — Aschenbrenner’s 20% SharonAI stake, fund returns, and comparison to CoreWeave valuation
- Benzinga — Schedule 13G filing showing 19.9% stake disclosure and stock reaction in June 2026
- Investing.com — SharonAI stock jump following 10% and subsequent stake disclosures
- CertifiedStrategic — SharonAI’s $1.6 billion funding round anchored by Situational Awareness and Oaktree Capital
- DataCenterDynamics — SharonAI’s 72MW Nvidia partnership and AI infrastructure agreements
- Yahoo Finance — Situational Awareness fund growth to $20 billion AUM and 2026 performance
