Leopold is Founder and Chief Investment Officer at Situational Awareness LP, an AI-focused hedge fund managing over $1.5 billion that invests in companies involved in artificial general intelligence development. The fund delivered 47% returns in the first half of 2025, vastly outperforming the S&P 500.

Leopold graduated as valedictorian from Columbia University at age 19, majoring in economics and mathematics-statistics. He worked on OpenAI's Superalignment team and conducted research on economic growth at Oxford's Global Priorities Institute.

Leopold authored the viral 165-page essay Situational Awareness: The Decade Ahead, predicting AGI by 2027, which became the foundation for his hedge fund's investment thesis. He co-authored Weak to Strong Generalization, presented at the 2024 International Conference on Machine Learning.

Situational Awareness LP secured anchor investments from Patrick and John Collison (Stripe co-founders), Nat Friedman, and Daniel Gross. Leopold brought on Carl Shulman, a former Peter Thiel macro fund researcher, as Director of Research.

The fund focuses on AI infrastructure investments including semiconductors, data centers, and power generation, with concentrated positions in companies like CoreWeave, Broadcom, and Vistra. Leopold's essay influenced policymakers and tech leaders, earning praise from figures including Ivanka Trump and becoming widely circulated in Silicon Valley and government circles.