New Delhi, Aug. 1 -- Only two years ago, Leopold Aschenbrenner was hailed as the "Nostradamus" of AI - a young oracle with a bold prophecy for the future.

"Before long, the world will wake up," Aschenbrenner, a former OpenAI researcher turned hedge-fund manager, predicted in 2024. This week, it did - but not in the way Aschenbrenner had foreseen.

Aschenbrenner's bullish bet on AI ran into trouble this week as his hedge fund, Situational Awareness, suffered heavy losses after semiconductor stocks tumbled, triggering margin calls.

In the blink of an eye, he watched its assets plunge from $45 billion at the start of July to about $10 billion. And he was forced to offload all of his leveraged stock bets - including hard-hit names like SK H...