Hedge fund Situational Awareness’ top stock bets have delivered outsized performance since the start of the year. The hedge fund was founded in 2024 by Leopold Aschenbrenner after he was laid off as a researcher at leading startup OpenAI.
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New trading tool for BE bulls/bearsOf the hedge fund’s five biggest bets, the following three discussed below have delivered impressive upsides since the start of the year, according to TipRanks’ Situational Awareness’ Top Stocks tool.
Situational Awareness, which operates out of San Francisco, focuses on companies engaged in developing AI technologies. It targets companies it believes will be AI winners and those it expects to be disrupted by the rise of AI.
Bloom Energy (BE)
This is a California-based on-site power generation company. Bloom develops, sells, and installs solid-oxide fuel cell systems for power generation, with a focus on AI data centers. Its Bloom Energy Server operates as a platform for converting fuel sources such as natural gas and biogas to electricity without combustion. BE stock recently surged following the company’s latest first-quarter fiscal 2026 earnings report.
Intel (INTC)
Intel is an American chipmaker known for its processors found in laptops. As the AI race continues to heat up, Intel is aiming to challenge current leaders in the AI graphics processing unit market, with its chip foundry business rumored to now be worth about half a trillion dollars. Intel’s shares underwent a wide rally late last month after the company’s blowout first-quarter 2026 earnings results — this rally, in fact, also spread to other chipmaking stocks.
Lumentum Holdings (LITE)
Lumentum Holdings is a communication equipment company focused on developing optical and photonic technologies that solve a key bottleneck of the AI industry: speeding up the transfer of massive amounts of data as AI workloads continue to explode. The California-based company develops chips that use light instead of traditional copper wire to accelerate data transfer at data centers. In March, Lumentum, alongside rival Coherent (COHR), secured a $2 billion purchase and capacity rights order from chipmaking giant Nvidia (NVDA).
Which Is the Best AI Stock to Buy?
Despite their massive year-to-date gains, all three stocks currently carry downside risks, with Intel having the biggest loss potential and a Hold consensus rating from analysts.
On the other hand, Lumentum carries the lowest price downside risk of roughly 10% and has a Moderate Buy consensus rating from analysts. This is based on an average price target of $887.21.
