Billionaire Investor Ray Dalio's Bridgewater Bets Big On Asia—But Snubs China In New $7.6 Billion Push

Billionaire investor Ray Dalio’s Bridgewater Associates is planning to accumulate funding for an Asia-excluding-China fund that caters to Chinese investors looking to diversify their holdings across the Asian economy.

What Happened: Bridgewater’s Chinese arm is looking to raise funds for its new product, which plans to invest in the Asia ex-China Total Return Fund, which has returned 20.7% on an annualized basis since its inception in October 2023, according to a Bloomberg report.

The firm founded by Dalio increased its onshore assets under management in China by 40% to $7.6 billion, or 55 billion yuan, in 2024. This was boosted by the firm’s multi-asset strategy fund, which outperformed many local rivals.

The Asia strategy fund achieved a 14% return before fees in the first four months of 2025, with 5.3% attributed to active management.

Since its inception, the fund has delivered an annualized return of 20.7%, outperforming the company’s All Weather Plus onshore China strategy, which had an annualized return of 19.4% through April 30, 2018. The onshore China strategy itself gained 10.9% year-to-date through April.

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Why It Matters: While Bridgewater expands in China, Dalio has appreciated China’s dominance in the application and usage of artificial intelligence technology during several public appearances.

During his speech at CNBC’s Converge Live in Singapore, Dalio underscored the United States’ distinct advantage in innovation, particularly in developing “the best chips in the world.”

However, he pointed out that the U.S. lags in its mass production. Regarding China, Dalio stated, “China is behind but not by a lot in the best chips,” and elaborated that the Asian nation leads in chip volume production and in integrating those chips into various applications.

He further emphasized China’s lead in practical applications, stating, “They are ahead on the applications, and they are integrating chips with robotics, and way ahead on that.” Dalio concluded by noting that application and usage would be significant competitive factors in the future.

Dalio had brought up the same points while speaking with David Friedberg on the All-In Podcast in late January. “I think the Chinese are a bit behind in the chips, but they are ahead in the applications,” he said in the podcast.

Price Action: The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE:SPY) and Invesco QQQ Trust ETF (NASDAQ:QQQ), which track the S&P 500 index and Nasdaq 100 index, respectively, fell in premarket on Tuesday. The SPY was down 0.17% at $591.71, while the QQQ declined 0.04% to $523.00, according to Benzinga Pro data.

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