How Bridgewater founder Ray Dalio would play the markets right now
As talk of an AI-fueled bubble continues, Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio broke down how he would play the market if he were still running the asset management firm. Speaking to CNBC on Monday, Dalio said that he would play the AI game but bet more on companies using the technology rather than hyperscalers: the mega-cap firms such as Amazon , Microsoft , Google and Meta , though Dalio didn’t name names. “The greatest impact is going to come from the users,” he told Dan Murphy on CNBC’s “Access Middle East.” “So those who have the platforms for enabling or those who actually use it to change their cost and their effectiveness will be the real beneficiaries,” he said, adding that such names aren’t as expensive. As well as high valuations, AI market concentration has raised eyebrows. In November, the European Central Bank warned that the concentration of gains in a small group of companies could mean the market was overlooking bigger risks, adding: “Current market pricing does not appear to reflect persistently elevated vulnerabilities and uncertainties.” Dalio, who founded Bridgewater in 1975 but stood down as CEO in 2017 and left the board this year, said that diversification was “very much important.” “I would also deal with the issue of money,” he said. “We don’t have enough money,” he said, adding that this was due to a combination of global budget deficits. “I worry about the issues of debt, that means that I want fiat money. I’m concerned about fiat money, that means that I also would be positioned in — not fiat money — gold positions and so on,” he added. Gold has rallied this year, hitting all-time highs as supply deficits, dollar depreciation and economic concern pushed investors to more stable assets. Dalio added he would be underweight in debt, overweight in “alternative money,” and would also bet on the build-out of electricity. Dalio listed “three things a country needs to do to be successful,” saying these were educating children well so that society is civil, having good capital markets, and having the rule of law and order so that countries don’t enter into “big conflicts.” “I’d be in the good places internationally,” he added. “Places like this and the areas that have less debt” are interesting, he said, pointing to India.
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