Hedge fund big Bridgewater pares China bets, offloading stakes in Alibaba and Baidu


Ray Dalio, founding father of Bridgewater Associates LP, speaks throughout the Greenwich Financial Discussion board in Greenwich, Connecticut, US, on Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2023.

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Hedge fund big Bridgewater Associates divested from U.S.-listed Chinese language shares within the second quarter, signaling a transparent pullback from the market amid rising geopolitical strains and weakening investor confidence in China’s financial prospects.

In accordance with its newest quarterly replace to the U.S. Securities and Alternate Fee — often known as 13F — on Wednesday, the fund closed out stakes in a number of Chinese language firms, together with main names like Baidu, Alibaba, JD.com, PDD Holdings, Nio, Journey.com Group, and Yum China. Different names embody Qifu Expertise and Ke Holdings.

The hedge fund additionally lowered its stake in Apple, however elevated its Microsoft and Nvidia holdings.

Longtime China bull Ray Dalio, who based Bridgewater Associates, had beforehand defended his investments in China. Final April, Dalio flagged Beijing’s battle with the U.S. and depressed costs amongst key challenges plaguing China’s economic system, however famous that the issues have been “manageable by Chinese language leaders in the event that they do their jobs properly.”

In April this 12 months, the billionaire investor referred to as for a rebalancing in U.S.-China relations, arguing that commerce imbalances have hollowed out U.S. manufacturing. He additionally urged each side to achieve a deal to “engineer massive reductions in these imbalances.”

As of the beginning of August, Dalio offered his remaining stake in Bridgewater and stepped away from the board, however stays a mentor to the hedge fund’s funding workforce

The developments come because the tariff truce between Washington and Beijing was prolonged by one other 90 days on Monday. With out the pause, U.S. tariffs on Chinese language items have been set to go as much as 145%, whereas Chinese language duties have been set at 125%. The present levy on Chinese language imports to the U.S. stands at 30%, whereas U.S. exports to China will incur a ten% tariff.

Bridgewater didn’t reply to a request for remark.