A quartet of major Wall Street lenders have been subpoenaed as part of an investigation into the crisis which engulfed hedge fund Situational Awareness and rocked the artificial-intelligence trade in recent weeks, according to multiple reports.

Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America face questions from the Securities and Exchange Commission, which is looking into how Situational Awareness nearly collapsed and was forced into the sale of the majority of its portfolio in July, according to the reports. Each of the banks did business with the highly leveraged fund.

Goldman Sachs, Citi and Bank of America declined to comment on the reports. JPMorgan didn't immediately respond to requests for comment early Tuesday.

Situational Awareness was founded and headed by Leopold Aschenbrenner, who briefly worked as a researcher at ChatGPT-developer OpenAI, before leaving and turning to stock-picking, with a focus on companies that stand to benefit from the development of AI technology. He named his firm after the title of a lengthy essay he published in June 2024 arguing that effectively superhuman artificial intelligence could arrive as soon as 2027.

After a run of stellar gains which saw its assets under management climb to more than $20 billion, Situational Awareness ran into problems when the AI trade stumbled and it faced margin calls from some of its lenders, according to The Wall Street Journal. The fund sold the bulk of its public stock portfolio to Ken Griffin's Citadel Securities, although it continues to hold private-company assets.

The SEC's request for information doesn't mean the banks or Situational Awareness itself has been or will be accused of any wrongdoing.