Aschenbrenner Fund Pitches Fluidstack Round at $40B Valuation

Leopold Aschenbrenner's Situational Awareness is pitching its clients on a new Fluidstack financing round that, according to Bloomberg, "values the neocloud at $40B, up from $18B in September."

Situational Awareness led Fluidstack's $830 million Series A in January 2026 at a $7.5 billion valuation, then co-pitched the $1.5 billion round that Jane Street led at $18 billion in September. The proposed Series C would be a more than fivefold markup inside ten months on the same company.

Reporting is clear on the headline figure but light on the mechanics: "the identity of the investors has not been disclosed, nor has the amount of the round." Fluidstack's book of business is unusually concentrated at the top of the AI stack. Its clients include Anthropic, Meta and Mistral AI, and the company says it "serves more than 40 percent of the Fortune 50."

The pitch lands only months after Situational Awareness itself "faced near collapse three months ago due to high-leverage bets on AI companies," per follow-up coverage of the fund's subsequent $400 million capital add. Fluidstack's step-up fits the week's run of AI-infrastructure markups we've been tracking, including Nscale pushing a $30 billion IPO while buy-side investors counter at $16-19 billion.