Bridgewater Associates

Bridgewater Associates, LP is a Delaware limited partnership and an investment adviser registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission since January 12, 1990, with its offices in Westport, Connecticut.¹ A Connecticut fiscal analysis prepared for a 2016 bond commission meeting gave its founding year as 1975 and described its clients as "foreign governments and central banks, corporate and public pension funds, university endowments and charitable foundations."²

Registration, Ownership and Officers

The firm's current Form ADV, filed on August 18, 2026, lists Robert Prince as co-chief investment officer since March 1986, Gregory Jensen as co-chief investment officer since November 2004, Tracey Yurko as chief legal officer and secretary since June 2017, Nir Bar Dea as chief executive officer since January 2022, Karen Karniol-Tambour as co-chief investment officer since January 2023 and Michael Kitson as chief compliance officer since March 2024.¹ Bridgewater Associates Intermediate Holdings, LP is its general partner and majority owner. Schedule D states that Bridgewater Associates Holdings, LLC is the sole general partner and majority owner of Intermediate Holdings, and that the holding company's board "is comprised of equity owners, the chief executive officer, other senior employees and external directors."¹

Schedule B lists the following as board members of Bridgewater Associates Holdings, LLC: Richard H. Anderson, Sian Beilock, Margo Cook and Osman Nalbantoglu (each since September 2022), Bar Dea, Prince and Jensen (since September 2022), Philip Dobrin (since January 2025) and Jasjeet Sekhon (since June 2026). The same schedule lists a Robert P. Prince 2016 Revocable Trust as a member since July 2024, and Amanah Sdn Bhd, a foreign entity, as a member since September 2019, each with ownership code C (25 percent but less than 50 percent). The Brunei Investment Agency is listed as a member of Amanah, also since September 2019 and also with code C.¹ The filing does not contain the name of Ray Dalio, whom Xinhua describes as the firm's founder.¹³ It states that "No holder of BAH LLC units is able to exercise unilateral control of the Bridgewater entities," and its disclosure reporting pages for criminal, regulatory and civil judicial actions each read "No Information Filed."¹ CNBC reported in August 2025 that "Dalio sold his remaining stake in Bridgewater and stepped away from the board" as of the start of that month.⁴ Benzinga reported on August 1, 2025, citing The Wall Street Journal, that Bridgewater repurchased the remaining shares held by Dalio and then issued new shares to the Brunei Investment Agency in a multibillion-dollar transaction giving the agency nearly 20 percent of the firm, and that the firm's communication to clients did not disclose the agency's involvement.⁵

The Form ADV lists, among the firm's other business names, "United States Bridgewater Associates, LP Beijing Representative Office," and notes a Connecticut notice filing effective February 12, 2002. The Securities and Exchange Commission's submissions record gives the business address as One Nyala Farms Road, Westport; the 2013 Senate questionnaire of its former general counsel gave it as One Glendinning Place, Westport.⁶⁷⁸

Raymond Dalio and Political Contributions

Federal Election Commission records for individual contributions under the names Raymond Dalio, Ray Dalio and Barbara Dalio show gifts, most of them to Republican committees and candidates, from 1998 through 2016. The earliest entry is 5,000 dollars to the Freedom and Free Enterprise PAC on November 12, 1998. Entries followed for Straight Talk America (5,000 dollars in August 2000 and again in March 2006), 1,000 dollars to Friends of John McCain on November 18, 2002, and 25,000 dollars to the Republican National Committee on June 23, 2004, in which the contributor's employer is recorded as Bridgewater Associates Inc. and his occupation as president.⁹

In 2007 and 2008 the entries concentrate on the McCain presidential campaign: 2,300 dollars to John McCain 2008 on March 9, 2007, 28,500 dollars to the McCain Victory Committee on April 21, 2008 (with a matching 28,500 dollar entry for the Republican National Committee on April 25 described as included in a joint fundraiser transfer), 31,000 dollars to McCain Victory 2008 on May 29, 2008, and 7,750 dollars each to the Republican parties of Colorado, New Mexico, Minnesota and Wisconsin through the same joint committee. He also gave 2,300 dollars to the presidential campaign of Mitt Romney on April 18, 2007, and 2,300 dollars to the presidential committee of Rudy Giuliani on November 26, 2007, in a reattribution from his wife. Further entries are 9,800 dollars to the McCain Leadership Fund on June 23, 2009, with transfers recorded to Country First PAC and Friends of John McCain on September 23, 2009; 5,000 dollars to America's Conservation PAC on July 11, 2014, in which the employer is Bridgewater Associates LP and the occupation chairman and chief investment officer; and 5,400 dollars to Friends of John McCain on June 20, 2016, as a redesignation.⁹

Barbara Dalio's entries include 1,000 dollars to Sanchez 2000 (September 30, 2000, employer recorded as "BRIDGEWATER ASSOCIATES/MONEY MANAGE," as truncated in the filing), 2,100 dollars to Ned Lamont for Senate (October 6, 2006), 2,400 dollars to Charlie Crist for U.S. Senate (October 21, 2009) and 5,000 dollars to America's Conservation PAC (June 30, 2014). The name searches returned no individual contribution entries dated after June 20, 2016.⁹ Searches of the Senate lobbying disclosure database for the client name Bridgewater return only Bridgewater Capital Corporation, a client of the lobbyist Michael A. Andrews between 2007 and 2011, and none for Bridgewater Associates; a search for the client name Dalio returns none.¹⁰ An email in the Department of Justice Epstein Library, sent by Jeffrey Epstein to Bill Gates on November 9, 2013, reads in full "Kissinger got the same pitch from ray dalio last week," without identifying the pitch or giving a first name for Kissinger.¹¹ An email of October 5, 2012, from Epstein's assistant to Epstein, headed "Tim Zagat/Ray Dalio," relayed that "Tim says Ray Dalio is on a boat in Japan at the moment...but Tim will have a party for Ray in January and will invite you."¹²

James Comey as General Counsel

James Comey's 2013 questionnaire for the Senate Judiciary Committee lists the following employment: Deputy Attorney General of the United States from December 2003 to August 2005; senior vice president and general counsel of Lockheed Martin from September 2005 to September 2010; general counsel of Bridgewater Associates, LP, from September 2010 to January 2013; director of HSBC Group plc from March 2013; and member of the Defense Legal Policy Board from September 2012.⁸ In the section on deferred income, he reported that he expected to receive 163,000 dollars from Bridgewater on June 30, 2013, and, "if I am confirmed," a full payout of his interests in its profit sharing plan, in the amount of 3,072,654 dollars, before assuming the directorship of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.⁸ He listed a Lockheed Martin lump-sum pension of 400,000 dollars expected in December 2015.⁸

At the hearing on July 9, 2013, Senator Chuck Grassley asked about the FBI's March 2010 stop-work order to Lockheed Martin on the Sentinel case management system; Comey answered that he had no involvement, that he "was aware of it internally at Lockheed Martin just in a general way," and that he had been Deputy Attorney General when the contract was let.⁸ Grassley then noted that the Department of Justice had entered a deferred prosecution agreement with HSBC and asked whether Comey would have a conflict. Comey answered that "it would be a conflict, and so I would recuse myself from any involvement in any matter relating to my former employers."⁸ Grassley also asked about the firm's "radical transparency." Comey replied that "Bridgewater's founder suggested I consider taping all meetings at the FBI. I am not prepared to commit to that," and that he had gone to Bridgewater "in part because of that culture of transparency."⁸

Connecticut Subsidies

On September 24, 2012, during Comey's period as general counsel, Westfair Communications (publisher of the Fairfield County Business Journal) reported that Governor Dannel Malloy had made Bridgewater the newest participant in the state's First Five program, with the company to relocate from Westport to a 750 million dollar headquarters at the Harbor Point development in Stamford on the promise of creating at least 750 jobs. The package as reported was a 25 million dollar forgivable loan at 1 percent for ten years, a job training grant of up to 5 million dollars, a grant of up to 5 million dollars for alternative energy systems, and up to 80 million dollars in urban and industrial sites reinvestment tax credits, for those jobs. Bridgewater had already leased about 225,000 square feet at the Wilton Woods Corporate Center, and area real estate brokers had long speculated about a Stamford headquarters, "with Bridgewater founder Ray Dalio's son having been an employee of BLT," the Harbor Point developer Building and Land Technology.¹³ A later analysis by the legislature's Office of Fiscal Analysis stated that under the 2012 agreement Bridgewater "was eligible to receive up to $115 million" and that the State Bond Commission allocated 9 million dollars in August 2013 for environmental remediation and bulkhead replacement on the 14 acre Bateman Way site in Stamford for the new headquarters.²

The Stamford plan did not proceed. On May 27, 2016, item D of the State Bond Commission agenda requested funds for a grant-in-aid and loan to Bridgewater Associates, LP under First Five "to assist with expansion of its facilities in Westport, Wilton and Norwalk," conditioned on retaining 1,402 jobs and creating 750; the loan was at 1 percent for ten years with principal deferred for five years, forgivable if the job targets were met by the end of 2021, with a 2 million dollar training grant and a 3 million dollar alternative energy grant. The agenda gave a total estimated cost of 527,500,000 dollars, of which company funds were 505,500,000 dollars.¹⁴ The Office of Fiscal Analysis listed the bond allocation as 22,000,000 dollars and noted eligibility for up to 30 million dollars in state tax credits.² House Minority Leader Themis Klarides and Senate Minority Leader Len Fasano criticized the item before the vote; Governor Malloy, who chaired the commission, replied that "some day I want to live in a world where I can have it both ways."¹⁵ The commission approved the item on May 27, 2016, by a vote of 7 to 2. State Comptroller Kevin Lembo and Representative Chris Davis voted no. Lembo said that "the size, scope and nature of this particular proposal stands out and meets a new threshold that compels me to vote against it," and Davis asked, "Did they not have the capital funds themselves," describing Bridgewater as "a company that is quite capable of paying for this themselves." Malloy said the company was also considering at least one location in Westchester County, New York, and that Massachusetts and Boston had provided more than 145 million dollars in incentives to attract about 200 jobs away from Connecticut, after General Electric announced in January that it was moving its global headquarters from Fairfield to Boston.¹⁶ CT Mirror reported that the state's economic development department said Bridgewater risked losing as much as 17 million dollars if it missed job benchmarks.¹⁷

Bridgewater and the state ended the arrangement in 2023. Connecticut Post reported on May 26, 2023, that a termination agreement dated March 21 and signed by Department of Economic and Community Development Commissioner Alexandra Daum and Bridgewater chief executive Bar Dea provided that the firm would keep 12 million dollars in tax credits already earned, forgo 18 million dollars in further credits, keep 5 million dollars in grants issued in 2018 and about 11 million dollars in loan forgiveness, and repay a loan balance of about 6.5 million dollars. The agreement barred the firm from relocating out of Connecticut before May 16, 2026, on pain of default and a penalty of 5 percent of the 22 million dollars in loan and grant funding. Sarah Fass, Bridgewater's chief human resources officer, said in a statement that "we have no plans to relocate."¹⁸

National Labor Relations Board Proceeding

National Labor Relations Board case 01-CA-169426 against Bridgewater Associates, LP, Westport, was opened on February 10, 2016, on a charge by an individual whose name the docket withholds. The docket lists allegations of discipline under section 8(a)(4) and coercive actions including surveillance under section 8(a)(1). An amended charge was signed on June 23, 2016. The Region issued a Complaint and Notice of Hearing on June 30, 2016, Bridgewater answered on July 13, 2016 through counsel from Jones Day, the hearing was rescheduled by a Regional Director's order on September 8, and a further Regional Director's order is dated October 28, 2016. The docket's status for the case is "Closed."¹⁹ The State Bond Commission vote of May 27, 2016, fell between the charge and the complaint.¹⁴¹⁹

Arbitration with Former Employees

In 2017 Bridgewater brought an arbitration against two former employees, Zachary Squire and Lawrence Minicone, founders of Tekmerion Capital Management, alleging misappropriation of trade secrets. The Wall Street Journal reported in July 2020, on the basis of a court filing by the two men, that a three-arbitrator panel found that Bridgewater brought the claims "not to prove misappropriation, but rather, to adversely affect [their] ability to conduct a competitive business" and that it had falsified and withheld certain evidence.²⁰ Institutional Investor described the two men's position as being that the panel found Bridgewater "manufactured false evidence." Bridgewater's responding filing, as reported by the same publication, stated that the legal fees at issue totaled 1.99 million dollars, that the panel had initially found that neither side proved its claims, that its employment contracts allowed fee recovery by former employees only in discrimination claims, and that many of its investment strategies "reside in the minds of senior Bridgewater personnel."²¹

The Partnership for Connecticut

In 2019 the Connecticut General Assembly enacted Public Act 19-117, the biennial budget implementer (House Bill 7424). Section 183 established "The Partnership for Connecticut, Inc." as a nonstock corporation "organized and established by the philanthropic enterprise and its agents," and defined the "philanthropic enterprise" as "a philanthropic enterprise founded in 2003 and located in Fairfield County that advances diverse philanthropic initiatives which include strengthening public education in this state and supporting financial inclusion and social entrepreneurship." The act does not name the enterprise.²² The Dalio Foundation, Inc. of Westport carries an Internal Revenue Service ruling date of September 2003.²³

The act provided that the corporation "shall not be construed to be a department, institution, public agency, public instrumentality or political subdivision of the state, or to perform any governmental function," and that its directors and officers would not be state employees or public officials for purposes of the ethics code. Section 185 set the board as four directors appointed by the director of the philanthropic enterprise, three appointed by the Governor, the Governor, the Senate president pro tempore, the Speaker of the House, the two legislative minority leaders and the corporation's president. Section 186 required the enterprise to provide 20 million dollars to the corporation for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2019, and the state to transfer 20 million dollars to a "Philanthropic Match" account on certification of that transfer; sections 188 and 189 allowed the Secretary of the Office of Policy and Management to spend 20 million dollars a year on the match for a maximum of five fiscal years.²²

Governor Ned Lamont announced the partnership at East Hartford High School on April 5, 2019, with Barbara Dalio and Ray Dalio present; CT Mirror reported that the state would match the Dalio Foundation's 100 million dollars over five years and that the first 20 million dollar state installment would come from fiscal reserves.²⁴ The The 74 reported in October 2019 that the Lamonts and the Dalios were neighbors in Greenwich who "didn't know each other before Lamont became governor in January." Federal Election Commission records show a 2,100 dollar contribution from Barbara Dalio to Ned Lamont for Senate on October 6, 2006.⁹²⁵ Attorney General William Tong ruled in August 2019 that communications with the elected officials on the board were subject to the Freedom of Information Act, and Republican legislative leaders on the board declined in September to sign approvals needed to start the programs; Dalio Philanthropies had spent more than 50 million dollars on Connecticut schools since 2010.²⁵

The partnership hired Mary Anne Schmitt-Carey as chief executive in March 2020 at a salary of 247,500 dollars; she was asked to resign on May 4, 2020, and on May 19, 2020, Barbara Dalio announced the Dalios' "intent to withdraw from the Partnership," writing that "it has become clear that it's not working because of political fighting."²⁶ According to Fox Business, Schmitt-Carey sued Dalio Philanthropies and Say Yes to Education in New York County in September 2020 for defamation and breach of contract and sought at least 2.5 million dollars. The complaint, as Fox Business quoted it, alleged that Ray Dalio had told her, "If my wife wants to distribute 10,000 coats, your job is to figure out how to do that," and, in Fox Business's words, "also states that Dalio conditioned his $100 million donation on the basis that it be exempt from state ethics and disclosure rules." The complaint is quoted as stating that "This exemption risked allowing an entity created by state legislation, with one-third of its budget coming from public funds, and with a board of directors including five elected officials, to operate in large part behind closed doors." A spokesperson for Dalio Philanthropies replied: "Anyone can make outlandish accusations. The evidence will be presented and judged fairly following the legal process."²⁷ ProPublica's Nonprofit Explorer lists Partnership for Connecticut Inc. (IRS ruling July 2019) with revenue of 20,013,287 dollars, expenses of 19,008,875 dollars and assets of 39,744,678 dollars for the fiscal year ending June 2020, and the Dalio Foundation's Form 990-PF filings show total assets of 322,846,770 dollars for 2011, 842,052,652 dollars for 2013, 804,361,145 dollars for 2020 and 1,484,061,978 dollars for 2021, a year of 687,569,757 dollars in revenue, and 1,541,767,086 dollars for 2023.²³ The foundation's Form 990-PF for 2024 lists Raymond T. Dalio as president and director and Barbara Dalio, Mark Dalio and Matthew A. Dalio as directors, none compensated; reports total assets of 1,665,091,766 dollars, grants paid of 50,888,478 dollars and grants approved for future payment of 35,170,000 dollars; and lists, among 214 grants paid, 2,000,000 dollars to Connecticut Rise Network, 700,000 dollars to the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities, 1,000,000 dollars to the Center for Strategic and International Studies for its endowment campaign, 1,000,000 dollars to the Aspen Institute for its Economic Strategy Group, 500,000 dollars to the National Committee on United States-China Relations for general operations and 100,000 dollars to the Council on Foreign Relations.²⁸

China

Bridgewater's own account, in a July 4, 2018 release, stated that it had "managed money for Chinese institutional investors in global markets since 1993," opened a Beijing office in 2011, and in 2016 established Bridgewater China Investment Management in Shanghai under general manager Wang Yan. The release announced that the Asset Management Association of China had granted it a private securities investment fund manager license, and quoted Dave McCormick, then co-chief executive, saying the firm had been "deeply involved in and studying the evolution of its economy and markets for more than 30 years."²⁹ The Form ADV lists Bridgewater (China) Investment Management Co. Ltd. as a related person registered with the China Securities Regulatory Commission and the Asset Management Association of China, and lists funds named Bridgewater All Weather China, Ltd. and Bridgewater China Total Return Fund, Ltd.¹

In December 2017 Institutional Investor reported that the firm's wholly foreign-owned enterprise license had been "paved in part by years of charitable giving and Dalio's personal relations as an informal adviser to some of the nation's most senior regulatory officials," that Dalio had written in his book that he advised Chinese regulators on the formation of the stock markets in the late 1980s, and that Dalio had founded the Beijing Dalio Public Welfare Foundation, led since 2013 by Jesse Wang Jianxi after he retired as chief risk officer of the China Investment Corporation. The analyst Andrew Collier of Orient Capital Research was quoted as saying that Bridgewater "may be the first large hedge fund to obtain access to the Chinese market due to behind the scenes maneuvering by Ray Dalio, which is likely to have included the appointment of Jesse Wang from CIC."³⁰

Rob Copeland's book The Fund, in a passage published by Semafor in November 2023, states that Dalio first visited China in 1984, met representatives of CITIC, said in one meeting, "Whatever fees you pay, I will donate back to China personally," and that "Bridgewater collected more than $10 billion for its funds from Chinese government wings." Copeland writes that Dalio became close to Wang Qishan, who endorsed one of Dalio's principles, and that Dalio called him a friend, a hero, and "a remarkable force for good." Dalio's statement on the book, quoted in the same publication, was that "Bridgewater obviously is not and was not as he describes it" and that the book was "more a sign of the times when bad journalism is more a fiction than a source of truth."³¹

The Chinese state news agency Xinhua News Agency reported that He Lifeng met "Ray Dalio, founder of Bridgewater Associates" in Beijing on August 29, 2024, and expressed the hope that Dalio "will continue to play a bridging role and promote U.S. companies to seize opportunities and deepen mutually beneficial cooperation with China." It reported a further meeting in Beijing on March 31, 2025, at which He said that "international investors are welcome to participate actively in the construction of China's capital market." In each report Dalio expressed willingness to contribute to cooperation between the United States and China.³³²

The firm's quarterly Form 13F filings list its United States exchange-traded securities held at quarter end; they do not show holdings in China-listed securities or in the China-domiciled funds named in the Form ADV. Positions in four Chinese issuers listed in the United States (Alibaba Group, Baidu, JD.com and PDD Holdings, formerly Pinduoduo) were 17.1 million dollars of 10.93 billion at December 31, 2018 (0.16 percent); 84.6 million dollars at December 31, 2019; 392.5 million dollars of 5.96 billion at June 30, 2020 (6.58 percent); 664.4 million dollars of 8.31 billion at September 30, 2020 (7.99 percent, with Alibaba at 392.2 million); 884.3 million dollars of 11.55 billion at December 31, 2020 (7.65 percent); 773.8 million dollars of 17.20 billion at December 31, 2021 (4.50 percent, with Alibaba at 507.0 million); 1.28 billion dollars of 24.81 billion at March 31, 2022 (5.18 percent, with Alibaba at 813.9 million); 356.5 million dollars, all PDD, at December 31, 2023; 159.1 million dollars at December 31, 2024 (0.73 percent); and 1.26 billion dollars of 21.55 billion at March 31, 2025 (5.85 percent: Alibaba 748.5 million, PDD 206.3 million, Baidu 191.1 million, JD.com 114.6 million). The filings for June 30, 2025 and each later quarter through June 30, 2026 list none of the four.³³ CNN's KFile, reviewing the filings for a broader set of Chinese companies listed in the United States, reported that the firm's holdings in them grew from 1.6 million dollars in the second quarter of 2017 to 1.77 billion dollars in the fourth quarter of 2021, from one company to 47; that it held a further 779 million dollars through exchange-traded funds; that a China-focused fund launched in 2018 had grown to 6.15 billion dollars by March 2022; and that after the United States added a subsidiary of an energy company in which Bridgewater held shares to a trade blacklist in June 2021, over alleged human rights violations against Uyghurs and other Muslim minority groups in Xinjiang, Bridgewater "more than doubled its shares in the parent company" between the second and fourth quarters of 2021. The company and China denied the violations, and Bridgewater did not respond to CNN.³⁴ CNBC reported in August 2025 that the firm "divested from U.S.-listed Chinese stocks in the second quarter."⁴

Government Alumni

McCormick is recorded in a Treasury press release of May 19, 2008, as Under Secretary for International Affairs of the United States Department of the Treasury, speaking on behalf of Secretary Henry Paulson at the annual meeting of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in Kiev.³⁵ In a July 2018 firm release he is named as co-chief executive of Bridgewater.²⁹ The Associated Press reported in April 2022, from his Senate candidate financial disclosure, that he earned more than 22 million dollars in 2021 as chief executive of Bridgewater, a post he left in early January 2022 to run for the Senate in Pennsylvania, and that he reported owning Bridgewater stock valued at more than 50 million dollars.³⁶ In written testimony dated September 12, 2023, to the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, McCormick wrote that "As CEO, I had a fiduciary responsibility to our shareholders and our clients to maximize returns in line with their needs," that he "held deep reservations about Bridgewater's exposure to the moral and patriotic hazards of doing business in China and often disagreed with key colleagues over China's trajectory and the nature of the CCP," and that the firm "had only a very tiny percentage of its overall business that relied on investment in China."³⁷ CNN reported that a spokeswoman for his campaign, Elizabeth Gregory, said he had "consistently spoken out" about the risk posed by the Chinese Communist Party, including against Dalio, and that he lost the 2022 Republican Senate primary in Pennsylvania to Mehmet Oz by fewer than a thousand votes.³⁴

A July 2025 press release from Senator Bill Hagerty stated that Luke Pettit, a nominee for Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Institutions, had previously worked at the Senate Banking Committee, Bridgewater Associates and the Federal Reserve.³⁸ Marc Gunther wrote in the Stanford Social Innovation Review in 2018 that Holden Karnofsky and Elie Hassenfeld, investment analysts at Bridgewater, founded GiveWell after struggling to work out how to give away their money.³⁹