The AI Billionaire Who Lost $30 Billion Before His Wedding

0:00This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed Human Earners, what's up? Look, building wealth isn't just about making money. It's about knowing where your money is working for you. That's why we partnered with Empower. Empower is all about helping you invest well so you can go out and live a little. Their free Empower personal dashboard gives you a complete view of your financial life in one place. Track your net worth, monitor your budget, analyze your investments, set retirement goals, and more. You've worked hard for your money. Now make sure it's working hard for you. Download the Empower personal dashboard or visit Empower.com.

0:37Not an Empower client paid or sponsored.

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2:18Save money. Check Lyft. We got the message from HQ that Citadel actually. brought a lot of Microsoft stock. And that brings us to the story of Leo. I want you to tell a story and then I'm going to add the animation to it. All right. All right. Okay. So let's talk about Leo Bo.

2:45I'll put it like this. This is somebody who is super intelligent. Obviously worked for OpenAI, left the company, decided to create a hedge fund about a year, maybe 18 months ago. But the hedge fund was based on investing in AI infrastructure, the AI story. A lot of energy, a lot of semis are inside that. And the portfolio was, again, started about 18 - Let me tell the story. Which one? Which part? Oh, the whole thing? Let me just tell the animated part of it. Okay. And then you add the technical part of it. All right, got it. So Leo, so once upon a time, it was a guy named Leo, right? leopold which i don't even like the name but that's another story super smart dude but not really a background in finance working in open ai and starts a hedge fund and really studies the stock market see where sees where this thing is going as far as chips are concerned and becomes a overnight sensation as far as investment is concerned giving you the abbreviated version Starts a hedge fund and within like 18 months, grows the hedge fund to$45 billion.

3:54From$225 million to$45 billion in about a little over 18 months. Here's the companies he invested in. CoreWeave, Nibius, Solaris, Applied Digital, Core Scientific, Bloom Energy, Iron, Micron, Sandisk, just to name a few. So his hedge fund was crazy. was up like 450 % over the year. It was just, he was the, everybody wanted to invest with him. He figured it out. He cracked the code for Wall Street and he's invested in all those companies, all of those companies, all of the companies that had crazy run-ups. And he was doing so good in life that he actually decided to get married. No, no, no, no, no, no.

4:37He did get married though. He did? He got married this weekend. I understand that. So that's what I'm saying. So he was on a run. He's on a hell of a run. He's a billionaire overnight. His portfolio that he's managing is worth almost$50 billion. He's got his investors 450 % over the year. Gets married. Sets his wedding to get married. That's fair. It's a whole situation. And he even put a thesis out last month saying, like, this is a generational buy opportunity for all of these companies that are up and it's like man the biggest gangsters they all live it's on wall street that's why i was so fascinated with wall street when i was a kid because i would watch these movies and the way that they would just move like vultures and sharks and piranhas and it's just so it's just so like ruthless so one fatal mistake that he made is that he over leveraged himself he tell you guys that all the time he was he was doing so well that he started he started playing a leverage game he uh he made a few mistakes he made a few mistakes the leverage game was number one i think investing in those companies early was the smartest thing he did he's very intelligent as he's making the money he decides to start shorting other positions right so when you short you're making puts saying that these things are going to depreciate but you got to realize when you're in this space especially at that billionaire club, like you're managing that type of money, your supporters are watching.

6:10But the people who you're taking money from and taking customers from, they're also watching. And I think he might have underestimated that. In fact, I definitely know he underestimated that because it's great when you're the golden child and hey, this is a new hedge fund. This kid's 25 years old. He's, you know, the real wolf of Wall Street at this point. The old guard is looking at it like, wait, how is he getting these returns, number one? Is he taking our clients, number two? And how can we stop him, number three? It's like the AZ9 song back in the days. It's like when we first started, nobody noticed us.

6:45Nobody gave a shit. But the bigger we get, the more we're taking from other people. So he starts to take market shit. He starts to leverage. he starts to be very vocal. He has to be taught a lesson. So all of these stocks that he invests in, all of a sudden, have historically bad month. Yeah. Down 35%, down 40%, down 50%. Historic drop in the portfolio, which forced - Hold on, simultaneously. Simultaneously. As the stocks are dropping, the ones that he puts shorts on are appreciating, right? So those companies are actually going up in price. So if you look at a service now, which he shorted, it's going up in price.

7:33You look at a Microsoft, going up in price. Again, that software basket, he was shorting it. And so they looked at it and said, all right, well, he shortened it. And he made that public. Okay, let's go put some capital in there to have those companies rise. So as he's saying that's going to go down, those companies are going up. And he's putting big bets on this to appreciate. Those are coming down drastically. So he's losing money left and right. He's losing money. He's losing money because the stocks just keep going down. MU is going down crazy. Sanders is going down crazy. So these are billions of dollars.

8:06His portfolio is now in the red. And what happens when you can't lose any more money? The bank wants their money back. So they start calling his margin calls, which forces him to liquidate stocks in mass. And it gets so bad. It gets so bad for him. Within a couple of weeks, last week, he was faced with the predicament that he had to liquidate his whole entire portfolio. And who called him? The godfather Ken. Ken Griffin. Yeah, not that Ken Griffin. The real Ken Griffin Griffin. Citadel. Citadel's Ken Griffin. Citadel's Ken Griffin. If you don't know who he is, Google him. The one of the wealthiest people on the planet.

8:48The godfather. Last year, he brought in$33 billion. $33 billion. The boss of all bosses. He gave them a call. Quick one before you jump back in. You're listening for ways to help teams move faster, make sharper decisions, and turn scattered context into work they can use. ChatGPT for Business can help. ChatGPT for Business gives teams a shared workspace with admin controls, permissions, and access to work and codecs in ChatGPT. This means your business can move from question to answer and code to rollout quicker. Join over 10 million business and enterprise users worldwide already using ChatGPT for work.

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10:47That's why we partnered with Empower. Empower is all about helping you invest well so you can go out and live a little. Their free Empower Personal Dashboard gives you a complete view of your financial life in one place. Track your net worth, monitor your budget, analyze your investments, set retirement goals, and more. You've worked hard for your money. Now make sure it's working hard for you. Download the Empower Personal Dashboard or visit Empower.com. not an empower client paid or sponsored earners what's up look you may have heard about built as the loyalty program that lets you earn points on rent wherever you live well they just leveled up even more as of 2026 homeowners can also earn up to 1.25x points on their mortgage payments this is thanks to built three new credit cards the palladium card obsidian card and blue card all three turn your housing payments rent or mortgage into flexible rewards so you can choose the car that fits your lifestyle without missing out on points and exclusive benefits bill points can be redeemed at top airlines and hotels amazon.com purchases future rent payments and more bill points have also been ranked by top publications as the industry's most valuable point currency your housing payment is already your biggest expense make it your most rewarding find the card that fits your lifestyle and apply today at joinbuilt.com slash leisure that's j-o-i-n-b-i-l-t dot com slash leisure make sure you use our url so they know we sent you terms and limitations apply subject to approval and eligibility built cards are issued by column n-a member fdic pursuant to license from mastercard international incorporated well i believe it was wednesday and said, look, I know that you you're in a bad spot right now.

12:39I'll buy your entire portfolio. Probably 30 % on a dollar. Got a deep discount. Brought his entire portfolio. He was allowed to keep some of his portfolio. We got to give him on all fairness. So he has private investments. He was invested in Anthropic. They allowed him to keep that. But the margin call, and this is why we tell people like, yo, be careful. Don't play with margins because when a margin call happens and you don't have that capital, they're going to call you once and they're not going to call you again. They're just going to start liquidating the portfolio in general. So if you had 10 ,000 shares or something, you're like, oh no, I don't want to sell that because I'm trying to hold on to that.

13:17I can get the money. They're going to call you once. They're not calling you again. They're liquidating everything they can to get their money back. And what, so what happens? Okay, so he's had a terrible month. His portfolio goes down 40%. The margin calls get called. Ken hits him in the middle of the night. Like, look, I'll take this off your hands because you have to get rid of it. He really has no option at this point in time. They squeezed him out. He had to sell. He sold the majority of his whole portfolio to Ken Griffin. And the next day, a historic rally. A historic rally happened the next day.

13:56I think as the news broke, the rally was happening. That broke like Wednesday morning. and by 9.30, you just saw a reversal on all these companies. Micron was up 20%. Sandus up 27%. Western Digital up 20%. Coral Weave up 14%. Nivea's up 15%. I mean, the timing of it speaks volumes. And you know what the craziest part is? It was a week before his wedding. A day, two days. He got married this weekend. I don't know if he got married this weekend, but the wedding was supposed to be this weekend. So allegedly, Wall Street plotted against him, tanked stocks on purpose, squeezed him out of his position, brought his portfolio for pennies on the dollar, then skyrocketed the stocks back up the very next day.

14:47And his portfolio got squeezed out of$35 billion. And the cold part about it was it was two days before the weather. Filthy. Now, it's filthy for so many reasons. Obviously, the money, being an intelligent investor here would have helped them out tremendously. But the idea that you want to get into positions, especially from retail investors, we always talk about getting in these investments and a good time, watching the moving averages, checking volume. Imagine at the institutional level, as they're watching a Sandisk get up to 2 ,200 or they're watching a micron get up to 1300. And they weren't big on those stories early on.

15:35They're sitting asking themselves the same thing. We're going to get a better price for that. We're going to get a better price for that. In fact, allegedly, we're going to make sure we get a better price for that. This guy is becoming a golden child. He was big on these stocks. He's run up to 45 billion. We're going to make sure we get better prices and better prices came in July. Now we could say it came at his cost, but it came at a lot of our costs a lot of us are in those micron calls and have shares a lot of us in sandus and have those shares a lot of us you know in blue man we were in these close core weave so as a retail we just take the brunt of that now on the flip side was he wrong in his investment strategy partially the companies were right they're spot on right if they weren't citadel wouldn't came and said hey let me get that portfolio so they got the portfolio with all those companies at a really good price and now they have that into the future he didn't have time because number one he had margin he was way over leveraged right and he used margin to get a scaled approach to his investments but this is this is the crazy part as he's selling it you know what he's doing the same day putting out a letter to say you know what i'm gonna start a new fund and we're raising capital i'm like this is like how the world works he's coming back he's coming story of a feeling.

16:56You fucked me out of $35 billion. I'm going to need my payback. I'm going to need mines. The day before my wedding, nah, it's on for life. It's smoke for life. Now, I'm on a whole different... Look, the dude, he going to be back. Learned his lesson. He learned not to over leverage himself. He learned to probably be a little bit more quiet about his moves. Look, he took... It's a major loss, but he's going to have a comeback because man, that's the origin. That's the making of origin story right there, man. He got done dirty. He got done really, really, really dirty. It's a dirty game. But just know, man, there's always somebody watching your movements.

17:35And Citadel, I mean, there's only a few companies, funds, that would be able to even take on that level of acquisition. They were one of them. And they struck right when the iron was hot. It's the diaper.com story. In many ways, yes. Before you sign off, you tuned in for ways to help teams move faster, make sharper decisions, and turn scattered context into work they can use. ChatGPT for Business can help. ChatGPT for Business gives teams a shared workspace with admin controls, permissions, and access to work and codecs in ChatGPT. This means your business can move from question to answer and code to rollout quicker.

18:16Join over 10 million business and enterprise users worldwide already using ChatGPT for work. Download the ChatGPT desktop app or contact sales to learn more. Earners, what's up? Look, building wealth isn't just about making money. It's about knowing where your money is working for you. That's why we partner with Empower. Empower is all about helping you invest well so you can go out and live a little. Their free Empower personal dashboard gives you a complete view of your financial life in one place. Track your net worth, monitor your budget, analyze your investments, set retirement goals, and more.

18:51You've worked hard for your money. Now make sure it's working hard for you. Download the Empower personal dashboard or visit Empower.com. Not an Empower client paid or sponsored. When traveling for events or festivals throughout the country, every dollar matters. We compare flights, prices, hotel rates, and restaurant options. So why wouldn't we compare rides? Personally, I always check lift before booking a ride. Prices can change throughout the day depending on traffic, weather, and what's happening in the city. If you're headed to a concert, out to dinner, or catching up with your friends on a Friday night, taking a few seconds to check lift could leave you with more money to enjoy the experience.

19:31Save money. Check lift. There are exciting things happening at your local CVS. Shop new extra big deals with extra care every two weeks. No coupon needed. Plus, get access to exclusive sale prices, personalized deals, and more as a member. Extra Care is the way to save at CVS. Join for free, online, or in-store and start saving. Visit your local CVS store or cvs.com slash extra big deals for this week's deals. This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human.