According to BlockBeats, on July 30th, based on BIT (bit.com) market data, most semiconductor stocks rose in pre-market trading on Thursday. Lam Research (LRCX) rose 7.65%, Applied Materials (AMAT) rose 2.66%, ASML (ASML) rose 2.08%, KLA-Tex (KLAC) rose 1.97%, TSMC (TSM) rose 1.05%, and Nvidia (NVDA) rose 0.82%; Arm (ARM) fell 6.47%, and Qualcomm (QCOM) fell 5.50%.

Optical communication concept stocks showed mixed performance: Nokia (NOK) rose 3.80%, Astera Labs (ALAB) rose 1.51%, Lumentum (LITE) rose 0.61%, and Corning (GLW) rose 0.60%; Coherent (COHR) fell 1.16%.

According to a report by Goldman Sachs on July 30, Asian-focused equity hedge funds are facing their largest monthly drawdown on record, as a broad sell-off in AI-related stocks wipes out most of the gains previously generated by concentrated bets on the sector. Goldman Sachs stated that as of July 28, fundamental long/short equity hedge funds focused on Asian markets had fallen an average of 18.6% this month. In the first half of the year, these funds were among the best-performing globally due to their early bets on leading AI hardware companies, including South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics. Some funds even achieved returns exceeding 100%. However, the market has now seen a sharp reversal. Goldman Sachs stated that since reaching a peak year-to-date return of 40% on July 22, these funds have given back 21 percentage points of their year-to-date gains.

Goldman Sachs points out that the crowded AI trading that drove the surge in funds in the first half of the year is now becoming "the main factor driving the unusually large drawdown this month." Funds with higher AI-themed exposure have suffered more severe losses. Faced with sharp market volatility, hedge funds are taking profits and reducing risk. Goldman Sachs data shows that as of July 27, Asian hedge funds had reduced their exposure for eight consecutive trading days, with the "five-day cumulative total exposure reduction" reaching a record high. (Jinshi)

According to BlockBeats, on July 30th, Citrini published an article stating that investors in Situational Awareness, the AI-themed hedge fund managed by 25-year-old AI stock market guru Leopold Aschenbrenner, initially invested in the fund not solely because they were bullish on AI, but also because they endorsed Aschenbrenner's assessment of AI's development path and the fund's strategy of focusing on high-beta AI stocks. Since its inception in 2024, the fund has seen a rise of approximately 2200%, but has recently experienced a significant pullback due to declines in related stocks.

He believes that investors with such strong faith in AI are unlikely to turn bearish on AI simply because SK Hynix's stock price halved in six weeks. Even if an investor put in $100 million when the fund was established and lost 90% of that in July, their holdings would still be worth approximately $230 million based on a cumulative return of 2200%.

Citrini anticipates that existing investors may continue to buy on dips, and Situational Awareness is also expected to secure the new funding it is seeking. Following the fundraising, the fund may unwind some short-term hedges and invest the new capital in what it calls "the best buying opportunity since April 2025"; market makers who sold hedging instruments may also simultaneously cover their hedging positions.

Leopold may not be in trouble at present; on the contrary, fundraising, hedging unwinding, and repurchases could drive AI stocks to a temporary bottom. However, if these AI-believing investors, who still have significant unrealized gains, refuse to buy more at lower prices, related stocks could continue to fall sharply.

According to BlockBeats, on July 30th, Hyperinsight monitoring showed that Polymarket trader "xm39" placed a $803 position in a "Yes" position on the prediction that "the US will invade Iran before 2027." This morning, within approximately 6 hours, he completed 223 buy orders. This marks the first time he has heavily invested in a war and macro-geopolitical event, based on his historical 42 positions, 50 completed trades, and recent 500 activity logs.

As of press time, it currently holds a total of 806,700 units of Yes, with a holding cost of approximately $223,000, an average price of 27.63 cents, and a floating loss of approximately -4.12%.

Monitoring shows that the external wallet highly associated with "xm39" is a Hyperliquid trading address starting with 0x40f, which is currently the largest long position holder of WTI crude oil on the platform. This address also appears to be continuously betting on crude oil prices amid escalating war on Hyperliquid, marking the first time this address has opened a crude oil contract in nearly a year.

Yesterday, it added a total of 133,300 WTI crude oil contracts (CL), with a trading volume of approximately US$10.791 million and a weighted average trading price of US$80.93. Today, it further increased its net open interest by 2,581,300 contracts.

As of press time, the whale held 155,200 long positions in CL with a leverage of 20x, a position value of approximately $13.22 million, and an average entry price of $81.8. The position had a floating profit of approximately $510,500, representing a return of approximately 80.3%. As it continued to roll over its position, the liquidation price had been pushed up to $81.56, which was now below the entry price.

Fund flow data shows that today, the whale withdrew approximately $246,400 in four separate transactions to the 0x2000 system address (HyperEVM).

Its first $100,000 outflow occurred this morning, and about one minute later, "xm39" began to concentrate its buying on Polymarket. The net outflow of $246,400 is very close to the $222,200 it invested in the prediction market today.

Judging from the address association, operation time, and amount of funds, this portion of funds is highly consistent with the fact that it was used to bet on "the United States will invade Iran before 2027" after cross-chain.