The 24-Year-Old Who Lost Billions - The Atlantic
archive.today webpage capture Saved from history←priornext→ 8 Sep 2026 17:05:54 UTC All snapshots from host www.theatlantic.com WebpageScreenshot sharedownload .zipreport bug or abuseBuy me a coffee SKIP TO CONTENT Site Navigation Popular Latest Newsletters Sign In Subscribe IDEAS The 24-Year-Old Who Lost Billions Leo Aschenbrenner claimed to know the future of AI. By Theo Baker Nicholas Albtrecht / The New York Times / Redux SEPTEMBER 8, 2026, 7 AM ET SHARE SAVE This article was featured in the One Story to Read Today newsletter. Sign up for it here. In the fall of 2007, as the American housing market began to buckle, a Morgan Stanley bond trader named Howie Hubler lost $9 billion. The bellicose former linebacker believed that he had structured his subprime-mortgage deals in a way that would outsmart the market. Instead, Hubler’s folly amounted to the largest trading loss in history. Until this summer, that is, when Leopold Aschenbrenner managed to lose nearly four times as much.