Why Ray Dalio Is ‘Thrilled About’ Selling His Last Shares

Ray Dalio, the 75-year-old billionaire founder of Bridgewater Associates, is officially stepping away from the hedge-fund firm he founded in 1975.

^{Image Credit: Roy Rochlin / Stringer | Getty Images. Ray Dalio.}

A letter sent to clients last week revealed that Dalio sold his remaining shares in the firm to Bridgewater, The Wall Street Journal reported. He also gave up his seat on the board but intends to remain “a client and mentor,” he said in the note.

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Dalio launched Bridgewater five decades ago out of his two-bedroom apartment in New York City. During his tenure, he served as CEO, CIO and chairman, growing Bridgewater to one of the largest hedge funds in the world with $168 billion assets under management in 2019.

Those assets fell to $92.1 billion at the end of last year after it twice capped its flagship Pure Alpha fund in an attempt to boost performance, several people familiar with the matter told WSJ.

Dalio has a net worth of $16 billion, according to Bloomberg Billionaire Index.

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Nir Bar Dea serves as Bridgetwater’s current CEO. Bob Prince, Greg Jensen and Karen Karniol-Tambour act as the firm’s co-CIOs.

Dalio shared his perspective on his departure in a LinkedIn post published on July 31.

“I have been asked a lot about how I feel about passing along Bridgewater after having started and built it over the last 50 years,” Dalio wrote. “Above all else, I am thrilled about it because I love seeing Bridgewater alive and well without me — even better than alive and well with me. That’s because I see this as [an] as-good-as-it-gets life cycle.”