ray dalio new yacht

• Share full article

A New Ship’s Mission: Let the Deep Sea Be Seen

A giant new vessel, OceanXplorer, seeks to unveil the secrets of the abyss for a global audience.

After years of rebuilding, upgrading and outfitting, OceanXplorer, a former oil rig turned research vessel, is ready for its operational debut. Credit... Andy Mann

Supported by

By William J. Broad

• Published Sept. 17, 2020 Updated Sept. 21, 2020

In 2014, when crude oil was selling for more than $100 a barrel, the cost of a new drill ship for oil exploration could run to $100 million.

So when the price of oil crashed, Ray Dalio , the founder of Bridgewater Associates, an investment firm in Westport, Conn., saw an opening. In 2016, he bought a lightly used oil ship at a very attractive price and transformed it into his dream — a vessel for big science, big technology and big storytelling. Mr. Dalio’s aim is to help Homo sapiens connect more intimately with the ocean, with what he calls “our world’s greatest asset.”

OceanXplorer is now making its operational debut, after years of rebuilding, upgrading and outfitting. So is Mr. Dalio, 71, as a new kind of entrepreneur. He sees his glistening, high-tech ship as a superstar not only of oceanic research but of video production, nature television shows and livestreaming events that will open the abyss to an unusually wide audience.

“It’s going to change things,” in part by inspiring a new generation of ocean explorers, Mr. Dalio said. Schoolchildren in classrooms will be able to guide the ship’s undersea robot through the primal darkness, uncovering riots of life.

“This isn’t a dream,” Mr. Dalio said in a recent interview. “This is it.”

At 286 feet from bow to stern, OceanXplorer is nearly the length of a football field. Side-to-side thrusters can hold it steady in pounding waves. It can house 85 crew members and explorers. Its hangar can hold three miniature submarines for taking humans into the sunless depths. It has two undersea robots, one that runs on a tether and one smart enough to roam on its own. At the bow, an automated system watches for whales, scanning the chop to avoid collisions.

The vessel’s gear and agenda draw on a decade of experience that Mr. Dalio gained while traveling the globe with scientists on Alucia , his smaller research ship. Like the new one, it featured mini submarines with bubblelike hulls of clear plastic that give the divers stunning panoramic views.

In 2013, Mr. Dalio was exploring the deep Pacific with scientists from Yale University and the American Museum of Natural History when, in pitch darkness, a camera was flashed. The surrounding creatures proceeded to light up in bioluminescent waves. “It was like a fireworks display,” Mr. Dalio recalled. “Everything was responding. It was unbelievable.”

Vincent Pieribone accompanied Mr. Dalio on that voyage. He is an author of “ Aglow in the Dark : The Revolutionary Science of Biofluorescence” and a neuroscientist at the Yale School of Medicine who uses the chemistry of ocean biofluorescence to study human nerve impulses. Mr. Dalio talked him into serving as vice chairman of OceanX , an undertaking of Dalio Philanthropies to explore the ocean. As the organization’s chief scientist, Dr. Pieribone helped rig the new ship for science investigations and directed much of its exploratory planning .

“I walked on the boat and was literally in tears because of all these things we were able to do,” he said recently. “It’s like something out of a Bond movie.”

Mr. Dalio is one of a growing number of billionaire philanthropists seeking to reinvent themselves as patrons of social progress through science research. According to Forbes , he has an estimated net worth of $16.9 billion, making him one of the world’s richest individuals. His firm, Bridgewater Associates, is regularly described as the world’s largest hedge fund.

Mr. Dalio said his ocean journey had begun while he was growing up on Long Island as the only son of a professional jazz musician — his father — and a stay-at-home mother. On television, he loved watching the sea adventures of Jacques Cousteau , the French oceanographer. Then, in his early 20s, Mr. Dalio learned how to scuba dive and, ever since, has been going deeper.

A turning point came in 2011 as he deepened his relationship with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution on Cape Cod in Massachusetts. The complex of shingled houses and brick laboratories is famous for devising Alvin , a submersible that was the first to illuminate the Titanic and to carry scientists down to the hot springs of the global seabed . The dark ecosystems teem with crabs, shrimp and tube worms.

Mr. Dalio was thinking of buying the Alucia when a team of Woods Hole experts used the vessel and an undersea robot to find the shattered remains of Air France Flight 447, which in 2009 had vanished over the South Atlantic with 228 passengers. Other search teams had failed, and Mr. Dalio saw the 2011 success as an indication of the field’s exploratory promise.

“It was a needle in a haystack,” he said of the jetliner hunt. “I was shocked and elated.”

He quickly bought Alucia and, late in 2011, also bought his first bubble sub after doing a test dive in the Bahamas. Almost immediately, the pair of vehicles made a major discovery.

The giant squid — huge and slimy, its tentacles lined with sucker pads, its big eyes unblinking — is a fixture of horror fiction , including Jules Verne’s “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.” But it had long eluded science. A 1994 book by Richard Ellis, “ Monsters of the Sea ,” called the creature so mysterious that “no one has seen a giant squid feeding — in fact, no one has ever seen a healthy giant squid doing anything at all.”

In the summer of 2012, off Japan, Alucia and its bubble subs hosted a team of scientists who found and filmed one of the beasts. The discovery made a global splash in 2013 on newscasts and documentaries .

Mr. Dalio’s youngest son, Mark, was then an associate producer at National Geographic’s television network. Fascinated by the squid hunt, he persuaded his father to financ e a multimedia venture, Alucia Productions, that would chronicle Alucia’s research. In 2017, the ship appeared in the BBC documentary series “Blue Planet II,” which was credited with producing a surge in applications for the study of marine biology.

By that point, Mr. Dalio had purchased the drill ship and was turning it into a suite of mobile laboratories for deep science and public education. For expert advice, he turned not only to his son, to Woods Hole and to Dr. Pieribone of Yale but to the film director James Cameron. The Hollywood mogul knew a great deal about marine science and technology, having plunged to the ocean’s deepest spot in an undersea craft of his own design that he then donated to Woods Hole.

Among other things, Mr. Cameron suggested banks of lighting that would illuminate not only the sea creatures being studied but the experts examining them. Last year, he told Variety that the giant ship, as a set, would illuminate the passion that drove exploration of the ocean.

“You are going to have adversity and psychological challenges,” he said. “The crew will be disappointed, the explorers will be disappointed. But for every moment there’s a setback or challenge, there’s going to be that moment of discovery. You want to take the audience on that roller coaster journey, because that’s what exploration is all about.”

The ship’s giant hangar is designed to hold not only the compact bubble subs the ship has already been outfitted with but larger undersea craft as well. A few of them, including Mr. Cameron’s, can plunge down nearly seven miles to the ocean’s deepest recesses. Their spherical hulls are typically made not of plastic but of superstrong metals such as titanium that can resist the crushing pressures.

Another innovation on OceanXplorer lets the bubble subs send video signals from their cameras to the surface on beams of light, allowing not only rapid consultations with experts aboard the vessel but the live broadcasting of exploratory findings.

“There’s nothing like OceanXplorer,” said Rob Munier, head of marine facilities and operations at Woods Hole. “It’s geared toward taking the concept of great science and great media to the next level.”

The ship’s inaugural voyage is to be profiled in “Mission OceanX,” a six-part series for National Geographic television. BBC and OceanX Media (previously Alucia Productions) are producing the series, and Mr. Cameron is an executive producer. OceanXplorer, after being reconfigured and outfitted in Europe, is now in sea trials. Filming for the television series is to begin early next year.

Mr. Dalio has long called investigations of the oceans more important than space exploration — doing so, for instance, in his best-selling 2017 book, “ Principles: Life and Work .”

“The return on investment is so much greater,” he said in the interview, referring to ocean exploration.

A riddle of the modern world, Mr. Dalio added, is why understanding and protecting the ocean gets relatively little money, time and effort compared with outer space. “If you think about the excitement and the importance, there’s no comparison.”

William J. Broad is a science journalist and senior writer. He joined The Times in 1983, and has shared two Pulitzer Prizes with his colleagues, as well as an Emmy Award and a DuPont Award. More about William J. Broad

Advertisement

By SuperyachtNews 06 Jun 2018

Ray Dalio announces OceanX and M/V ‘Alucia2’

New initiative and vessel aim to revolutionise ocean research and media….

Superyacht owner and philanthropist Ray Dalio, with his son Mark, director James Cameron and a number of other leading scientific partners, announced the launch of OceanX yesterday. This initiative, to further explore the ocean for educational and scientific purposes, will be undertaken by a brand new vessel, 85m M/V Alucia2 . The project aims to follow the huge success of ocean exploration carried out by Dalio’s existing research vessel, 56m M/V Alucia .

In a statement about Alucia2 and OceanX, Dalio illustrated his passion for conservation and understanding more about our oceans. "I believe that ocean exploration is more exciting and important than space exploration [and] we are on a mission to show people that." The Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation is among the many philanthropic partners of the project.

Alucia2 will be delivered in 2019 and was originally built as a deep-sea diving survey vessel in 2010. According to reports, she will be “the most advanced science and media vessel ever built” and her refit has been designed by Gresham Yacht Design. Features of the vessel include marine research labs, media equipments (and an entire media centre), manned and autonomous deep-sea submersibles, as well as a range of helicopters and drones. James Cameron, known for his filmography and ocean exploration, was consulted throughout the development of the media centre. "With OceanX and Alucia2 , we will reignite global passion for and curiosity about the ocean in our global, digitally-connected age,” said Cameron. In addition to hosting scientists and media teams, OceanX will conduct virtual classes and museum exhibitions for people across the world.

"With OceanX and Alucia2, we will reignite global passion for and curiosity about the ocean in our global, digitally-connected age.”

Ray Dalio is founder of OceanX and the president of Dalio Philanthropies. His son, Mark, is the founder and creative director of OceanX Media, who worked with the BBC team behind the Blue Planet II series. In a conversation with The Superyacht Report last year, Alex Flemming, co-CEO of marine operations for the family office that operates M/V Alucia, revealed the driving force behind Dalio’s entrance into the yacht market. “He is a very intelligent man and he was always fascinated by the scientific community. He was introduced to Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and he was so fascinated and taken aback by what they do – and what they achieve – that he had the idea to buy a boat.”

Flemming also echoed the importance of Dalio’s focus on ocean – not space – exploration through engaging media content. “We are trying to make it interesting, and fun, so that it makes difference and people actually say, ‘that’s cool’. Not only promoting the project and the idea, but also make people aware of what is going on. 70 per cent of our planet is ocean, and we only know about 15 per cent of it, how does that make sense? We’re spending more money trying to populate the moon than we are in our ocean backyard.” The impact of Dalio on the superyacht industry’s attitude to ocean conservation and scientific research is undeniable. Hopefully, his commitment to these causes will inspire more owners to follow his example. And as M/V Alucia has been at the forefront of many exciting ocean discoveries in recent years, we eagerly await the successes of OceanX and M/V Alucia 2 .

All images courtesy of OceanX

Profile links

Gresham Yacht Design

Join the discussion

To post comments please Sign in or Register

When commenting please follow our house rules

Click here to become part of The Superyacht Group community, and join us in our mission to make this industry accessible to all, and prosperous for the long-term. We are offering access to the superyacht industry’s most comprehensive and longstanding archive of business-critical information, as well as a comprehensive, real-time superyacht fleet database, for just £10 per month, because we are One Industry with One Mission. Sign up here .

Related news

Can conservation solve yachting's image problem?

Is it time to turn the superyacht philanthropy conversation on its head?

6 years ago

Sign up to the SuperyachtNews Bulletin

Receive unrivalled market intelligence, weekly headlines and the most relevant and insightful journalism directly to your inbox.

Sign up to the SuperyachtNews Bulletin

The superyachtnews app.

Follow us on

Media Pack Request

Please select exactly what you would like to receive from us by ticking the boxes below:

SuperyachtNews.com

Register to comment

Instead of a luxurious megayacht, Ray Dalio the billionaire hedge fund manager has the world’s most advanced exploration vessel. Helmed by scientists the 285 ft ship has wet and dry labs, helicopters, submarines, and a state-of-the-art media center.

You may also like, the redskins owner is getting a $100m superyacht that will have its own imax cinema, tropical island paradise superyacht has water cascading from its volcano, in its latest round, the us has sanctioned evgeniy kochman and his company imperial yachts which manages and charters yachts worth billions of dollars to the russian elites., an israeli mining billionaire is selling his lavish 298-foot-long superyacht for $254 million. the lurssen-built vessel has two swimming pools, lacquered ceilings, a wellness center, and even a beauty salon., powered by bio-diesel, the 285 feet long feadship obsidian is the greenest superyacht to be delivered this year. the hybrid vessel has fold-out balconies and an underwater viewing lounge., forget about that mega yacht, get your own private, mobile island, the kokomo ailand, meet elon musk’s scandal-ridden father errol. though ‘brilliant at engineering’, the tesla centibillionaire just does not get along with his father and has called him ‘evil’., not a stealth warship, but this is a $300 million superyacht of a sanctioned russian billionaire. in hiding for the past two months, with its location transponders switched off, the vessel has now moved to dubai’s famed world islands., blue eyes superyacht reflects eastern grandeur and glory.

Ray Dalio Launches OceanXplorer To Study World’s Oceans

When Ray Dalio was growing up on Long Island, he used to love watching TV documentaries by Jacques Cousteau, the French oceanographer. Now Dalio, 71, and the founder of one of the largest hedge funds in the U.S., is launching OceanXplorer , his own 286-foot research vessel, with three miniature submarines and two underwater robots, to explore the oceans of the world himself.

He also will make some documentaries of his own, starting with a six-part series for National Geographic , produced by the BBC with James Cameron, the director of The Titanic , as executive producer.

Dalio is best known as the head of Bridgewater Associates, in Westport, Connecticut. It is often referred to as the largest hedge fund in the country. Forbes says that Dalio himself is worth $16.9 billion.

Now he’s turning his considerable energies, and some of his fortune, to studying the world’s oceans and the creatures that live in them. The oceans, he says, are “our world’s greatest asset.”

After traveling around the world on a smaller research ship, and taking the first picture ever of a giant squid, Dalio bought OceanXplorer , a used oil ship, in 2016. It was built by Freire in Spain in 2010, and has a beam of 59 feet, a draft of 22’ 5”, a displacement of 4,398 tons, and room for a crew of 85. It tops out at 16.5 knots.

The ship has spent the past two years at the Damen yard in the Netherlands for a major refit, so it can be used for research, ocean exploration, filming and livestreaming events. Cameron has installed Hollywood-quality movie labs on board, and will use banks of lights underwater to illuminate not only the sea creatures being studied but also the scientists who are studying them.

The chief scientist on board is Vincent Pieribone, a neuroscientist at the Yale School of Medicine. He told The New York Times that OceanXplorer is “like something out of a James Bond movie.”

The ship is now undergoing sea trials in Europe. Filming for the TV series is scheduled to start early next year. Stay tuned. Read more:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/17/science/ocean-exploration-dalio-ship.html

About Author

Related Posts

MJM Embraces State-of-the Art Boatbuilding

New Bluephire 34 with All-Glass Roof

Wreckage of Shackleton’s Last Ship Found

Leave a reply cancel reply.

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Instead of a luxurious megayacht, Ray Dalio the billionaire hedge fund manager has the world’s most advanced exploration vessel. Helmed by scientists the 285 ft ship has wet and dry labs, helicopters, submarines, and a state-of-the-art media center.

You may also like

A detailed breakdown of how the United States Marshals are spending $600,000 a month to maintain the seized $325 million Amadea superyacht. The vessel burns $2,500 of diesel every day to run its air-conditioning so seawater and mold don’t ruin the plush interiors and gold fittings.

Even after spending $500,000 in fuel for a gruelling 18-day voyage and then stalling his yacht for a month in Fiji. Suleiman Kerimov has lost the legal battle against the US authorities who are now sailing the oligarch’s $325 million Amadea megayacht to the United States.

Once owned by ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt, the Lussen Oasis superyacht has been refitted and extended to over 203 feet, with an even larger beach club area.

The surprising reason why Bill Gates’ modest ex-wife Melinda never liked his $120 million Washington mansion. The 66,000 sq.ft tech-laden home has six kitchens, an artificial beach, a trampoline room, and even an artificial stream.

Sanctioned billionaire Mikhail Fridman has lost his High Court challenge over the upkeep of his 168-year-old London mansion. The $78 million Athlone House has an art collection worth $53 million and requires $2350 a month just to maintain its communication systems.

From upholstering a yacht’s bar stools from whale foreskin to drinking tea from a $36 million antique cup and more – Here are the most eccentric indulgences billionaires have done

Emirati royal, Sheikh Mansour is all set to take delivery of one of the world’s largest yachts. The billionaire owner of the Manchester City football club is said to have paid more than $600 million for the 525 feet long Lurssen built luxury yacht.

This glorious $250 million superyacht was the first vessel to be seized by the FBI, and now it’s headed to the Oceanco shipyard to get even more luxurious upgrades. The size of a football field, Kylie Jenner once paid $1.5M a week to charter the yacht to throw a lavish birthday party

The superyacht market isn’t just hot—it’s red hot. The billionaire owner of the NFL team Jacksonville Jaguars, who once was a dishwashing migrant, managed to sell his 312-foot yacht in record time, marking one of the biggest yacht deals of 2023.

The global authority in superyachting

• NEWSLETTERS
• Yachts Home
• The Superyacht Directory
• Yacht Reports
• Brokerage News
• The largest yachts in the world
• The Register
• Yacht Advice
• Yacht Design
• 12m to 24m yachts
• Monaco Yacht Show
• Builder Directory
• Designer Directory
• Interior Design Directory
• Naval Architect Directory
• Yachts for sale home
• Motor yachts
• Sailing yachts
• Explorer yachts
• Classic yachts
• Sale Broker Directory
• Charter Home
• Yachts for Charter
• Charter Destinations
• Charter Broker Directory
• Destinations Home
• Mediterranean
• South Pacific
• Rest of the World
• Boat Life Home
• Owners' Experiences
• Interiors Suppliers
• Owners' Club
• Captains' Club
• BOAT Showcase
• Boat Presents
• Events Home
• World Superyacht Awards
• Superyacht Design Festival
• Design and Innovation Awards
• Young Designer of the Year Award
• Artistry and Craft Awards
• Explorer Yachts Summit
• Ocean Talks
• The Ocean Awards
• BOAT Connect
• Between the bays
• Golf Invitational
• Boat Pro Home
• Superyacht Insight
• Global Order Book
• Premium Content
• Product Features
• Testimonials
• Pricing Plan
• Tenders & Equipment

Triton Submarines announces new partnership with James Cameron and Ray Dalio

Triton Submarines has announced a new partnership with Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio and Academy Award-winning filmmaker James Cameron in a bid to “support a vital new future of tech-enabled ocean exploration”.

The submarine specialist announced the news on the 10-year anniversary of National Geographic’s DeepSea expedition to the bottom of the Mariana Trench.

Triton founder and president Patrick Lahey said he “couldn’t be more excited” about the partnership. "At Triton, we create innovative technology and machines intended to push past existing boundaries and inspire the next generation of ocean advocates,” he said.

He continued: "Ray and Jim bring additional business acumen and discipline to the company, creative ideas and unique opportunities that will amplify and expand on the important work we have accomplished so far. I couldn’t be more excited to partner with two individuals with demonstrable passion and integrity and with a deep commitment to ocean innovation and exploration that will make Triton’s next chapter the most interesting of them all.”

Along with his son Mark, Dalio is the co-founder of OceanX, a philanthropic initiative that supports ocean science and aims to shine the spotlight on the success of this area. The organisation’s marine science and media vessel, the OceanXplorer , is equipped with a pair of Triton submersibles which have been instrumental in a number of ambitious expeditions, including BBC’s Blue Planet II and in the upcoming National Geographic/Disney series OceanXplorers (WT), which is executive produced by James Cameron.

Dalio said: “I’m thrilled to partner with the Triton team because my long relationship with them has convinced me that they are the best and most cutting-edge builders of non-military subs in the world. These subs are singular in the industry and are easily outfitted with advanced scientific and media equipment to bring important discoveries back to everyone.”

Cameron is a passionate underwater explorer, experienced submersible pilot and longtime marine tech innovator credited with developing unprecedented deep ocean exploration vehicles, lighting and 3D camera equipment. He said: “We’re entering an exciting new age of technically-enabled ocean exploration reliant on a new suite of marine vehicles, advanced imaging systems and other tech that will propel ocean science. More than 80 per cent of our oceans are unexplored. There are mysteries to solve, new discoveries to make and critical knowledge to acquire.”

The DeepSea Challenge documentary followed James Cameron piloting the DeepSea Challenger submersible to the Mariana Trench, the deepest point on the planet. The ten-year anniversary celebration took place at the Los Angeles Museum of Natural History.

More stories

Most popular, from our partners, sponsored listings.

Are submersible super-yachts the next adventure for billionaire tourists?

A project led by james cameron to promote deep-sea tourism aspires to more than entertaining the ultra-wealthy.

Ray Dalio has sometimes been compared to Captain Nemo, the unforgettable fictional character from two Jules Verne novels: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1870) and The Mysterious Island (1875). He was an Indian prince and engineer who roamed the seas at the helm of the Nautilus , a submarine described by Verne as “a masterpiece full of masterpieces.” Nemo has appeared in various film adaptations of Verne’s novels, where he has been portrayed by famous actors like James Mason and Michael Caine. A collector of coral, pearls and Renaissance paintings, the captain was a connoisseur and an outlaw, an anti-establishment rebel and a vigilante of the seas. One day he would rescue shipwrecked sailors and defend hard-working Pacific islanders, and the next he would sink ships without thinking twice.

Any similarities between the fictional Nemo and the real-life Dalio are purely coincidental, of course. Dalio is a New Yorker who grew up in Queens, the same New York City borough that produced Donald Trump. He is not an aristocrat or a scientist, but a very successful money manager who founded in 1975 what is now Bridgewater Associates, a multinational venture capital firm.

Nemo and Dalio are immensely rich philanthropists who abhor ostentation and love the underwater world. In a phrase that Nemo could have uttered, Dalio once said that Elon Musk’s plans for space tourism to the Moon and Mars are “a foolish project that holds little interest.” But traveling to the bottom of the sea is indeed worthwhile. “That is where true wonders and real aliens await us.”

The budding submersible yacht industry

In December 2022, Dalio jumped into the luxury recreational diving business when he invested in Triton , the world’s largest manufacturer of civilian submersibles. Co-founded by Patrick Lahey, the company needed investment partners to make and sell submarines that can take ordinary (but rich) people on luxury cruises to unusual places like the Mariana Trench, the world’s deepest oceanic depression. Lahey found two investors to take the plunge — Ray Dalio and filmmaker James Cameron .

Cameron, who made a fortune from huge blockbuster movies like Avatar (2009), Titanic (1997) and Terminator (1984), says his investment in Triton was primarily motivated by the scientific objectives of the new business venture. He believes that private fleets of luxury submarines will enable us “to better understand the 80% of the world’s oceans that are still unexplored.”

Triton’s vessels are equipped with highly advanced imaging systems powered by artificial intelligence that store everything they capture in the audiovisual archive of the human race. In a brief interview with The Financial Times , Dalio said, “If you’re just going on a yacht in some fancy place, that’s one thing. If instead you’re on a yacht and you can go down and explore, first of all the trip is going to be better and also it encourages exploration.”

Look but don’t touch

These underwater adventures aren’t for everyone. Triton submersibles start at $2.5 million and range all the way up to more than $40 million. The base models can only dive to depths of a few hundred yards and can accommodate a maximum of 10 people. The top-of-the-line models are submersible super-yachts that can accommodate 66 guests. The most sophisticated Triton vessels can descend all the way to the bottom of the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific Ocean.

Triton’s website describes its vessels as works of “superlative” engineering intended for “demanding professionals and discerning individuals.” They are built “with the best materials” and equipped with “excellent visibility” due to their “optically perfect” acrylic windows that ensure “a direct and intimate relationship with the depths of the sea.”

Francesca Webster, editor of Super Yacht Times , describes the project as an exciting partnership with “elite collaborators” like Espen Øino, the Monaco-based yacht designer that recently created a futuristic submersible prototype called Project Hercules . Webster called the personal submarine project, “… not just as a toy for the super rich – but a viable tool that can advance human understanding and excitement for the ocean.”

Strange creatures at the bottom of the sea

There are no Johnny-come-latelys in this initiative. Over 30 years ago, James Cameron made The Abyss (1989), a classic science fiction film about a U.S. nuclear submarine’s encounter with an unidentified object in the Cayman Trough. The message was that we are living right next door to unknown worlds in the ocean depths, and that exploring these worlds is the human race’s immediate destiny.

On March 26, 2012, James Cameron proved that he takes his passions very seriously by making a solo descent to 35,787 feet (10,908 meters), give or take a foot, aboard the Deepsea Challenger. It was the first solo dive and only the second crewed dive to reach the deepest point on the planet after oceanographers Jacques Picard and John Walsh made their 1960 descent in the Trieste bathyscaphe.

Shortly after his historic descent, Cameron gave a speech at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco in which he described finding new species of marine worms and sea anemones in the previously unknown New Britain Trench near Papua New Guinea. But the vessel Cameron used over 10 years ago is nothing like the submersible venues that Triton envisions. Back then, Cameron spent nine claustrophobic hours in a tiny cabin measuring just over 35 cubic feet (one cubic meter). “I had to do yoga for six months to become flexible enough to fit in there,” he said.

Oil exploration

Dalio also has some very strong credentials in ocean exploration. In 2016, with a personal fortune of more than $21 billion, the tycoon bought an old oil rig and converted it into a mobile scientific exploration and research center that he named the OceanXplorer. The size of a football stadium and equipped with state-of-the-art technology, the offshore station became the first venture of OceanX, a company that Dalio owns and manages with the youngest of his four sons, Mark.

In his 2017 memoir, Principles: Life and Work , Dalio calls OceanX the crown jewel of his philanthropic work because its mission is to produce knowledge and share it with the world. He also writes that ocean exploration is far more urgent, exciting and necessary than space conquest. In 2018, Mark Dalio persuaded James Cameron to invest in OceanX, which began a partnership that led to the recent investment in Triton.

Patrick Lahey is an engineer and entrepreneur who has been diving since 1975, and says he has contributed to the design of more than 50 manned submersibles. In 2007, Lahey and Steve Jones founded Triton Submarines to build and sell personal submersibles to yacht owners. The company received a boost in 2015 when British scientist and documentary filmmaker David Attenborough rented a Triton vessel to film the second season of the Blue Planet television series on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.

Monturiol’s shadow

A few years later, Triton, now a thriving business based in Florida that was making five submarines a year, went to the small town of Sant Cugat near Barcelona to start a project inspired by Narcís Monturiol, the 19th-century Spanish inventor and pioneer of underwater navigation. Working closely with Barcelona-based Clúster Nàutic and the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, Triton and its partners are creating submersible prototypes capable of withstanding the low temperatures and high pressures found at the deepest places in the oceans.

Lahey is enjoying the growing popularity of underwater exploration by tourists and is setting his sights next on exploring the Arctic Ocean. He laughs amiably about those who called his idea “inconsistent and ridiculous.” Dalio, Cameron and Lahey feel like the heirs to the dreams and aspirations of those who came before, like Jacques Cousteau and Jules Verne. They will never attack warships with battering rams like Captain Nemo, but they share his thirst for knowledge and adventure, and have added a healthy dose of entrepreneurial pragmatism.

Dalio sums it up in one inspirational sentence. “Yachts aren’t all about opulence… They’re about where these craft can take us. And the experiences you can have with them.” And what’s better than an underwater yacht that can take us to the deepest heavens, even if it does cost $40 million.

Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAÍS USA Edition

More information

Paris is still the luxury capital of the world

Drinking mushrooms, paying cash and sexploration: Here’s what we’re anticipating in 2023

Archived in.

• James Cameron
• Francés online
• Inglés online
• Italiano online
• Alemán online
• Crucigramas & Juegos

• Work & Careers
• Life & Arts

Become an FT subscriber

Try unlimited access only $1 for 4 weeks.

Then $75 per month. Complete digital access to quality FT journalism on any device. Cancel anytime during your trial.

• Global news & analysis
• Expert opinion
• Special features
• FirstFT newsletter
• Videos & Podcasts
• Android & iOS app
• FT Edit app
• 10 gift articles per month

Explore more offers.

Standard digital.

• FT Digital Edition

Premium Digital

Print + premium digital, ft professional, weekend print + standard digital, weekend print + premium digital.

Essential digital access to quality FT journalism on any device. Pay a year upfront and save 20%.

• Global news & analysis
• Exclusive FT analysis
• FT App on Android & iOS
• FirstFT: the day's biggest stories
• 20+ curated newsletters
• Follow topics & set alerts with myFT
• FT Videos & Podcasts
• 20 monthly gift articles to share
• Lex: FT's flagship investment column
• 15+ Premium newsletters by leading experts
• FT Digital Edition: our digitised print edition
• Weekday Print Edition
• Videos & Podcasts
• Premium newsletters
• 10 additional gift articles per month
• FT Weekend Print delivery
• Everything in Standard Digital
• Everything in Premium Digital

Complete digital access to quality FT journalism with expert analysis from industry leaders. Pay a year upfront and save 20%.

• 10 monthly gift articles to share
• Everything in Print
• Make and share highlights
• FT Workspace
• Markets data widget
• Subscription Manager
• Workflow integrations
• Occasional readers go free
• Volume discount

Terms & Conditions apply

Explore our full range of subscriptions.

Why the ft.

See why over a million readers pay to read the Financial Times.

International Edition

• Privacy Policy
• Terms of Use

• WESTCHESTER
• Business Journal
• Supplements
• Real Estate
• Economic Development
• Hudson Valley
• Banking & Finance
• Construction
• Health Care
• Food & Beverage
• Mergers & Acquisitions
• Home & Design
• Health & Fitness
• Small Business
• Food & Restaurants
• GOOD THINGS
• PARTNER INSIGHTS
• 2024 Women Innovators
• 2024 40 Under 40
• 2024 Real Estate
• 2024 Women In Power
• Milli + Genz
• Women Innovators
• Doctors of Distinction
• Forty Under 40
• 2023 Women In Power
• 2022 Millennial + GenZ Awards
• 2022 C-Suite Awards
• 2022 Doctors of Distinction
• 2022 FORTY UNDER 40
• 2022 THE FUTURE OF REAL ESTATE
• 2021 FORTY UNDER 40 VIRTUAL EVENT
• 2021 TOP WEALTH ADVISORS Virtual Event
• 2021 Milli + GenZ Awards
• 2021 C-SUITE
• 2021 DOCTORS OF DISTINCTION
• Events Calendar

Ray Dalio buys a stake in submarine company

Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio and has teamed with Oscar-winning filmmaker James Cameron to buy an equity stake in Triton Submarine, a company that makes submersibles for private use.

According to a Financial Times report, Dalio and Cameron now co-own Triton Submarine with the company”™s co-founder, Patrick Lahey. While the financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed, Dalio stated the company will offer a new pursuit for yacht owners in search of adventure below the waves.

“If you”™re just going on a yacht in some fancy place, that”™s one thing,” Dalio told the Financial Times. “If instead you”™re on a yacht and you can go down and explore, first of all the trip is going to be better and also it encourages exploration.”

Triton”™s submarines are priced from about $2.5 million and can cost up to $40 million. Dalio, who gave up control of Westport-based Bridgewater in October, owns four submarines and considers the undersea world to be more fascinating than the outer space travels advocated by fellow billionaires Jeff Bezos, Sir Richard Branson and Elon Musk.

“Ocean exploration seems to me much more exciting and important than space exploration,” he said. “You”™re not going to see any aliens in outer space but you will see aliens underneath.”

This page is available to subscribers. Click here to sign in or get access .

International wine festival coming to Poughkeepsie

New documentary focuses on families facing economic hardship.

Phil Hall's writing for Westfair Communications has earned multiple awards from the Connecticut Press Club and the Connecticut Society of Professional Journalists. He is a former United Nations-based reporter for Fairchild Broadcast News and the author of 11 books (including the new release "100 Years of Wall Street Crooks," published by Bicep Books). He is also the host of the SoundCloud podcast "The Online Movie Show," host of the WAPJ-FM talk show "Nutmeg Chatter" and a writer with credits in The New York Times, New York Daily News, Hartford Courant, Wired, The Hill's Congress Blog, Profit Confidential, The MReport and StockNews.com. Outside of journalism, he is also a horror movie actor - usually playing the creepy villain who gets badly killed at the end of each film.

Related Posts

CONSTRUCTION KICKS OFF FOR RENOVATION AT DAY CENTER

NY state seeking large-scale renewable energy projects

SEC seeks to sanction Monticello woman in Ponzi scheme

Andrea Bocelli makes a magical Connecticut debut

Happy Hanukkah

Leave a reply cancel reply.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

• Good Things Happening
• Food & Restaurants
• Health & Fitness
• Home & Design

Email address:

U.S. and world news for June 20

Summer begins: Tropical Storm Alberto has come ashore in South Texas, leaving three people dead. A storm urge is expected...

CNN WIRE — Justin Timberlake charged with DWI, released from police custody: VIDEO

U.S. and world news for June 19

CNN WIRE — Fauci discusses on-going challenges, death threats: VIDEO

U.S. and world news for June 18

CNN WIRE — Wildfire rages in Los Angeles County: VIDEO

Latest news.

The Arc Westchester, the largest organization providing services and support to people with developmental disabilities in Westchester...

Residential project pushed for country club in Clarkstown

Five Athena Healthcare facilities sold to competitor

© 2024 Westfair Business Publications. All rights reserved. Westfair Communications (Westfair), a privately held publishing firm based in Mount Kisco, N.Y., publishes the Westchester County Business Journal in New York state and the Fairfield County Business Journal in Connecticut.

© 2024 Westfair Business Journal. All rights reserved.

• Today's news
• Reviews and deals
• Climate change
• 2024 election
• Fall allergies
• Health news
• Mental health
• Sexual health
• Family health
• So mini ways
• Unapologetically
• Buying guides

Entertainment

• How to Watch
• My Portfolio
• Latest News
• Stock Market
• Biden Economy
• Stocks: Most Actives
• Stocks: Gainers
• Stocks: Losers
• Trending Tickers
• World Indices
• US Treasury Bonds
• Top Mutual Funds
• Highest Open Interest
• Highest Implied Volatility
• Stock Comparison
• Advanced Charts
• Currency Converter
• Basic Materials
• Communication Services
• Consumer Cyclical
• Consumer Defensive
• Financial Services
• Industrials
• Real Estate
• Mutual Funds
• Credit Cards
• Balance Transfer Cards
• Cash-back Cards
• Rewards Cards
• Travel Cards
• Credit Card Offers
• Best Free Checking
• Student Loans
• Personal Loans
• Car Insurance
• Mortgage Refinancing
• Mortgage Calculator
• Morning Brief
• Market Domination
• Market Domination Overtime
• Asking for a Trend
• Opening Bid
• Stocks in Translation
• Lead This Way
• Good Buy or Goodbye?
• Fantasy football
• Pro Pick 'Em
• College Pick 'Em
• Fantasy baseball
• Fantasy hockey
• Fantasy basketball
• Download the app
• Daily fantasy
• Scores and schedules
• GameChannel
• World Baseball Classic
• Premier League
• CONCACAF League
• Champions League
• Motorsports
• Horse racing
• Newsletters

New on Yahoo

• Privacy Dashboard

Yahoo Finance

Inside the intense world of billionaire ray dalio: opening bid.

Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio is certainly a notable figure on Wall Street, at one point the head of the largest hedge fund on Wall Street. Dalio has amassed a following on social media for his no nonsense approach to self-improvement. Dalio is known for ‘The Principles’, a series of guidelines to help develop an intense workplace culture. While there is much to be amazed by Dalio, is there more to the story? New York Times Finance Reporter Rob Copeland takes a deep dive into Dalio's management style in his new book "The Fund: Ray Dalio, Bridgewater Associates, and the Unraveling of a Wall Street Legend", drawing on hundreds of interviews from those inside and around Bridgewater Associates.

Yahoo Finance Executive Editor Brian Sozzi is joined by New York Times Finance Reporter Rob Copeland to discuss his new book, his career as a Journalist, and the upcoming presidential election.

This post was written by Nicholas Jacobino

Video Transcript

Hello there, my investing, curious friends.

Welcome to opening bid.

I'm Brian Sazi.

Yahoo Finance's executive editor.

Thank you for joining us either on youtube, Yahoo Finance, Spotify, I Hearted Pandora or Amazon Music.

If you are loving opening bid, hit us with those likes and fire off your questions.

And hot takes to me on X at Brian Zazi and at Yahoo Finance, we are here to help and listen, make some money and get a lot smarter.

Jeremy Ta is a special guest, Rob Copeland, finance reporter at the New York Times.

He's the author of the new book called the Fund Ray Dalio Bridgewater Associates and the unraveling of a Wall street legend.

Good to see you really.

This is just an incredible, incredible book I imagine.

Uh Ray wasn't happy about it.

Oh, he wasn't happy about it before, before a word had been written.

So talk to us.

Why unpack the story for us?

Why did you write the book?

So what's interesting to me is that I've known about Ray Dalio for probably longer than a lot of, a lot of the public, which is because I used to write for a hedge fund trade publication.

So I knew because he's a very successful investor, he's said to have predicted the financial crisis.

Um and he's become, he, you know, he's worth $20 billion.

So I just thought he was another successful rich dude.

And then over the years, he's become more famous as the inventor of the so called Principles.

He wrote one book called Principles and then a second book and then a third book and the, the wild story about Rey is that the truth of what he's like and the truth of these so called Principles For Life and work is so different from the story that he has told, talk to us about, you know what it was like to do the reporting for a story like this.

Who did you talk to?

Uh not of course names but you know what, what was the process going through like this?

Did people I'd like to give you a list of everyone I spoke to.

So from reporter, reporter, I know.

No, no, we're gonna leave that one out.

The uh e exactly.

So the, the thing is at Bridgewater, uh they have a philosophy called radical transparency, which is that everything at Bridgewater should allegedly be open to, to everyone.

Um But they pair that with very strict NDAS um incredibly uh onerous security.

They had Jim Comey as their essentially head of security for a few years, which is a fun side story.

So in order to convince people to talk to me, they sort of have to trust me know that I'll keep them anonymous because Bridgewater and Ray have a reputation for going after people uh who don't toe the company line.

Why, why is not there had not been really any critical coverage of Rey now externally?

And I think people who may not familiar with his career, they see Ray, the the personality on social media combined, he has almost 3 million X and Instagram followers, millions of followers on youtube.

I get pitch stories from his people constantly that uh he put a new post out on youtube.

But then there's like Ray Dalio, the hedge fund manager, I mean, he wouldn't uh talks about these different personalities that he has.

The short answer is that it's really hard to write critical pieces um or even just truthful pieces about incredibly wealthy uh people.

And there's a number of reasons for that, but in re in particular, has become incredibly successful at portraying himself as sort of this kindly uh supplicant sort of this, this this person who has a lot to offer us.

And if we just, he literally says, if we just follow his principles, you will become wealthy and successful.

So there's not really a follow up question or that if someone says just trust me, I'm worth $20 billion you Rob Copeland are worth spoiler alert, considerably less exactly five.

I'll take it.

So and the, the other side of that is that, although race seems, although the character character that he plays on TV, and even on, in Yahoo finance and on, on literally every major, uh, news publication, the character he plays is a very kind person behind closed doors at Bridgewater.

It's, it's, it's very different but to get those stories, um, and to tell it in an interesting way, well, it took me a few years.

Yeah, of course.

I mean, I definitely want to get to those stories, but really, I think a lot of folks know Ray for you mentioned the principles, some form of Cultural Bible that you must follow at the workplace or else, what do people think about the principles?

Are people true believers?

Or is this just a lot of hot air and Bs?

There are, there is no one answer to that question.

Certainly at Bridgewater, there are a handful of true believers, but I would say that the, the number one believer has always been Ray Dalio himself.

Um And that's because these rules which essentially say, you know, you should uh fight your sub optimal instincts and we should be open to disagreeing with one another.

They sound OK on the surface, you know, there's nothing wrong with.

In fact, right now, if you just said, Rob, you're rambling a little bit, we could do this better.

You know, it might hurt my ego for one second, but I trust you.

Because you're the expert.

This is your, your show.

The problem is that it shows it's like a snowball going down a hill and it just gains momentum.

And the problem is the person at the bottom of the hill.

Uh It always seems to be someone other than Ray Dalio.

Why did he create the principles it?

I know he just, we've met him, we've talked to, to Ray Da before he doesn't strike you initially as someone that is going to put in place this doctrine that everybody must follow.

They rarely do.

Uh uh L Ron Hubbard didn't, didn't either.

Keith Ranieri didn't, didn't either.

It, it sort of wouldn't be a, a very good um very fun game if uh if, if he admitted uh right up front, uh what, what he was doing, the um really dark thing about Bridgewater and the principles that I didn't discover until even starting this book uh was that Ray Dalio was a billionaire before he ever came up with the word principles.

It was the mid two thousands.

He was already incredibly successful.

He was in the second half of his career and then he starts to search for sort of an animating principle behind his success.

He doesn't just want to be another rich guy and look, there are other business leaders like this.

This is a relatable feeling, you know, Steve Jobs, Elon Musk.

They're always looking to say we're trying to save the world.

Uh But in Ray's case, he comes up with these so called principles.

And if, again, if he had just stopped there, he just said I have some lessons I've learned.

I would have written a very different book, but it doesn't stop there.

It gets wilder and wilder and wilder.

And unfortunately, uh it had, you know, really negative impact on a ton of people's lives before we get into some of these uh stories, Rob we're both journalists but I write things you know, differently and we cover stocks, markets, leaders and you do it more.

You come at it from where I imagine an investigative perspective.

Do you ever get concerned when you're doing a book like this or, or deep stories for your safety?

I mean, you're essentially holding truth to some of the most powerful people in the world.

I do get concerned sometimes.

In fact, I have actually been doxed.

Um, after uh I wrote a story about Elon Musk.

Um my address was posted online and I had, I was working for the Wall Street Journal and I had to stay at a hotel for two nights.

And the great tragedy of this was the Wall Street Journal Hotel in the city.

I was at was just ok. Um It could have been, it could have, I didn't get like the nice vacation I thought.

Um, so look, I, I do get worried re sent after me three different high price pr uh, high price law firms, four different pr firms, um, to not publish the book, to not publish the book to intimidate me.

They threatened a multibillion dollar lawsuit against me, which again is like a little funny because, you know, you could threaten me with a much smaller lawsuit.

It would have the same effect given my net worth.

Um, but, you know, maybe I was dropped on my head as a kid or something.

But I kind of like exactly.

I, I like telling the truth.

I like telling interesting stories.

And in this case, the truth is so much stranger than fiction that uh if I were making it up, I, I couldn't have made up this book.

Well, some of these stories are my point.

I don't know how to put it.

But let me just go through a couple that stood out to me, one, a, a employee based on your reporting, uh was flagged for not washing their hands.

Yes, this is so at Bridgewater, one of the principles states, essentially there's no such thing as small problems, everything needs to be investigated.

So the problem with that, of course, is that there are only so many major things to investigate at any, at any firm.

Uh And it goes down the line into smaller and smaller problems to the point where Bridgewater creates what they call an issue.

Log, a, a list of everything wrong at the firm and people are required to find issues.

They're still doing this.

They claim that they have changed some of these, uh, you'd have to ask them.

But they, uh, they, they were, there were people literally flagging each other for not washing their hands just so that they could point out things wrong with their college.

So the person that doesn't wash their hands, do they get reprimanded?

Or is it just like, hey, you're not, you're maybe you're only $1000 less for your bonus, you you could because at, at Bridgewater also, there's an incredibly complicated uh and dystopian reading system for your personality and for your abilities.

And so the fact that you did not wash your hands would be said to say something about you uh as a person memo to all viewers wash your hands uh back to, you know, the full swash.

Give it like the full, like two minutes here, wash your hands even without just wash your hands, wash your hands in general.

So the second story is, and I shouldn't be laughing because this stuff is, I just haven't heard these stories before, Rob.

The, they created a Politburo.

And if people are not familiar with that, that is what the, the propaganda arm of the Chinese government.

So they tried to replicate that, tell us about that.

So the Politburo is one of the elite groups in the Chinese Communist Party.

And at Bridgewater, Ray Dalio creates his own he literally calls it the Politburo.

And what it is is a group of mostly younger employees who are supposed to be his eyes and ears inside the firm so that, you know, remember there's no such thing as small problems and he doesn't want anything to go uninvestigated.

So he has a whole apparatus of people who report just to him who sit in on media, who go in and take notes, who barge in and out of the room and who don't just try to find problems.

But then if they find one, they start to investigate you for not having found it first.

Um And this becomes this huge weapon of his inside the firm.

And without spoiling uh one of one of the parts of the book, he winds up using the Politburo against his number two, he winds up sort of weaponizing it.

Um And look, it really is no spoiler to say that, you know, Ray Dalio tends to win these arguments in this case.

He does it with this, this group which he literally has borrowed from the CCP.

And then one of the other stories uh that really, I left an impression on me is a story uh Bridgewater uh employee Katrina Stefanova, uh which some had thought could possibly succeed.

Ray Daio at some point, tell us about that.

So in order to understand also why people put up with this, and I'm gonna tell you about Katina, you have to understand that there's this incredible promise of uh at Bridgewater, which is that if you put up with it, if you do, what did they literally say?

Get through to the other side, which is a phrase that Scientology uses too.

The you will you have a chance at this, this, these riches self-improvement for yourself by following principles and then this incredible bounty.

So Katina begins to put up with a lot of uh what people around her would say is abuse from Ray Dalio.

And she messes up one day on something that is not important to task about recruiting people.

And he calls for a trial of her to a diagnosis of her problems as he puts it.

And then at a trial.

So all the top people at the firm come into a room, they put a recording device on the table and he just begins to uh to exacerbate her.

That's not the word, but we'll try and he's criticizing her.

He's yelling at her.

She starts to be upset, she starts to sob, she starts to uh you know, be incredibly upset.

Eventually she runs out of the room, leaves the room, he releases this, this tape, he edits it to make himself seem like a kind person and he releases it to the firm under the name.

Pain plus reflection equals progress.

Now, I had heard a lot of this throughout the years, bits and pieces what I didn't know until I uh wrote the book was that, that whole time Katrina was pregnant and she wasn't just crying because she had made a mistake or because her billionaire boss was in her face, but she was literally pregnant the whole time.

And he released this snuff tape of her internally and kept re-releasing it.

By the way, for years, they would play it for, uh for applicants to Bridgewater and they would say, what do you think about this?

And if you said I found this disturbing, they would throw your application out.

Hold that thought for a second, Rob, if you're watching opening bid on our streaming platforms, we're heading for a quick break.

Everyone else stay with us.

We are still rocking our 24 minutes for opening bid as usual.

So, Rob, you were telling us this story uh about Katina inside of Bridgewater.

But what also caught my attention is there's other people around here watching this and some turning away.

How is this?

How is this acceptable in the year?

What 2023 2024 whenever it, whenever it took place, we have to remember, first of all, that Bridgewater is very much a closed society that even though Ray might appear on this program on other, on other programs, he's just going to talk in very high levels about uh the economy and when he's done, you won't really be able to pin him down on whether he said anything of substance.

Bridgewater is a place that operates that is in suburban Connecticut uh in the backcountry for most of its existence.

It operates with a strict rule book, um with a charismatic leader and with harsh punishments to those who go against him.

So that is itself, you know, AAA form of coercion.

Um People would say, and even more than that at Bridgewater, they're gonna tell you up front, they're going to say that this is going to be painful.

He's gonna give you the list of the principles he's and they, and they sound, you know, some of them sound kooky.

He's saying if you just put up with this for a year to 18 months, you know, you, you will break through and you will be a better person.

Now, the fact that that timeline seems to extend a very long time, people don't tend to remember that.

But because he has already said, hey, give up your values, check your values at the door, the values of your family, of your religion, of your community and take on my values.

Uh It sort of shifts your, your perspective and people wound up doing things that they, you know, later regretted.

He re is, I should also remind everyone, please wash your hands.

Now, Ray is not, he is known to be making like these bold calls.

I mean, they get a lot of eyeballs, they get a lot of views, they make a lot of make a lot of noise.

So, his latest call is that we might see a civil war.

What do you think about that?

It's not even as late.

I mean, it is as late as it's just a continuation of doom and gloom.

So, I did something that I hope no one else ever does.

Which is that while I was writing the book, my research assistant and I went back and we read every single news article he'd ever been quoted at, back to the 19 seventies.

And the wild thing is that Ray has been predicting doom and gloom, pretty much uninterrupted for his entire career.

Now markets go in cycles.

So most years he's wrong.

But when he's right because every 10 years or so we see some sort of uh some sort of downturn, he gets an incredible amount of attention for having seen it coming and no one remembers that he was wrong, you know, the nine prior years.

So his latest thing which he's been doing for a few years is to predict World War Three, Civil War as he just did last week and he, he's done before.

Um That's that inequality will tear us apart, which is always to me amusing from someone who's so wealthy and keeps so much of the money.

Um So look, this is what he does, it gets him attention.

Um And remember if you're an investment manager and you warn someone and you say, listen, you've got to be really careful and I have the solution for you.

My investment product is the solution.

That's a very attractive marketing technique.

Why do clients stay with him if he's been making these calls for all these years?

There has not been a civil war.

Um Why aren't people taking money out of Bridgewater?

Well, first of all, many of them are um so Bridgewater peaked at 100 $60 billion.

It's now around $80 billion.

Um The, the pitch of Bridgewater of Theres calamity around the corner.

It isn't just a way to get money, but it's a way to keep money because you'll always feel like you're just about to, to do the worst thing you could imagine, which is, you know, take your money out of the person trying to protect you right before the storm.

Um The other thing that Bridgewater has done is it's become the default by appearing on all these programs by going to White House State dinners.

Um, as he did, uh this year, you, you know, no one's gonna get fired for putting their client's money with Bridgewater because they're so big and they're so uh purportedly stable.

So if you can just become the default, you know, it almost doesn't matter whether you're making money or not.

What's his legacy.

That's a great question.

Um Look, the principles will, will be a legacy.

The book has sold millions of copies and, you know, probably actually dozens of copies to people other than Ray Dalio himself.

Um The uh thank you.

Um I think that his legacy also will be among hedge fund managers and among investment managers as wrapping himself in this patina of pseudo philosophy.

It's now something that we see, I think across the business world and he really was relatively early to, to that.

And then what is the future for Bridgewater?

So then there's like a, there seems to be a new generation of leaders starting to, to gain hold um at the company.

But they are they following Ray's principles to the t are they true?

Ray believers, have they started to veer off any of their own direction?

You know, it's another tough question because yes, they have a new CEO, a Newish CEO, they have allegedly an investment committee which uh isn't uh which Ray is a mentor to but doesn't, doesn't sit on.

But you have to ask yourself who, who has the power here?

Is it the person whose name you don't remember?

Who's the CEO, the three Cio s um whose name sometimes even I don't remember.

Um or is it the guy whose name is associated closely with it who still owns a lot of the firm who can at any moment go on television, go with his millions of followers on linkedin um Twitter.

By the way, Instagram too, I started getting huge 1.5 million.

I get, I get pinged with ads for the principal constantly.

And now they're posting snippets on Instagram with two sentences trying to, I guess, inspire a new generation of, of accolades.

He's literally making up new principles.

We're going to stop taping this.

I'm gonna open my phone and he's going to have a new principle.

It's gonna be don't read the fund by Rob Copeland.

But the uh so, but, but who has the power?

I would argue the power is the guy who at any moment can go to his followers.

And all he has to say is I don't have confidence in the people running Bridgewater anymore and they're in a whole world of pain.

So, you know, he still holds the Trump card.

Uh I should mention of course, reach out to a representative for Ray Dalia.

We have not heard back uh about uh any of his thoughts on, on Rob's book.

Uh But we will post that uh when we do or should if we do uh hear back.

But you mentioned Trump Rob and, and before we let you go, you know, you're not just covering Ray Dalio every single day of your life.

Uh You're also the finance reporter, of course, for um for the New York Times, what is the, how are the billionaires on Wall Street thinking about Trump as we near the election?

So that's a good question.

I just wrote a story last week actually about how a lot of these people are, are feeling I have been shocked and I'm not a political person.

Um, but I remember, and I've been covering the space for long enough.

I remember 2016, 2020 they were the billionaires, the hedge fund managers, the bankers, they were sort of eager to tell you how much they didn't like Trump or how much they were disgusted by XYZ or whatever uh policy have you.

It's so different this time around.

Um, now people tell me how, oh, they don't love him but Biden is so much worse.

Um, or they say, well, you know, if you look at these two candidates, they're both imperfect and that's why they're going for, for Trump.

Um I think the biggest example for this of me is if you watch Ken Griffin, who's a Citadel founder, who is uh one of the biggest political donors.

Now, he's never given a dime to, to President Trump.

Uh, former President Trump, excuse me, Trump would love to hear me make that mistake.

Uh He's never given a dime, but now he is inching back into that corner.

I think even he would, I mean, I spoke to him for last week.

Uh even he would say he's leaning in that direction.

So if Trump can get these sort of self described moderate republicans, uh back in his corner, not back in his corner, but there for the first time, that's a huge shift for me.

So he doesn't have their full support.

It sounds like yet.

He doesn't yet, but he's, he's getting there and remember a lot of them are sort of withholding the support too because they're hoping to still influence his vice presidential pick.

And we're hoping to keep him from doing God knows what untruth social day to day.

But he is, we should say the polls say he, he is leading this race.

Um So they're, they're falling in line.

How does, do you think a lot of these billionaire Wall Street donors, they will come public with their support of Trump if they do support him?

I do, I do because having covered this space for a long time, uh self doubt is not a uh is not something that characterizes this, this space.

The uh I think they will be proud of it.

They will have their reasons.

Um I will report their reasons by the way, they're, they're newsworthy.

I don't think there's the shame that there was in 2016 and, and 2020.

Um And on the flip side, there, are you look at uh what the Biden administration is in, they're really in a tough situation because what these Wall Street donors want, particularly in Israel.

It's very different from what the polls say that younger voters and Arab American voters want.

So either Biden has to sort of do what these donors want or he has to do what a larger part of the electorate wants.

And there's no, there's no straightforward answer there.

Why aren't these, why aren't they at least somewhat supportive of President Biden?

I asked that because the stock market record highs, bank stocks rocking seems to be the whole, really so many people on the street are making a ton of money and they have the past four years.

They made a ton of money the, the prior four years too.

Um It is a complicated answer but inflation, yes, it's, it's helped the, the markets as a whole.

It's helped the stock market et cetera if you had money just straight up in the S and P. But what it's also done is it's totally cramped capital markets activity.

Um M and A is basically at, at zero I, the IP O market is totally frozen.

So if you're these, these wealthy guys and they're almost always men, that's what you think of when you say like, oh, like the economy is booming.

It's not about whether you can afford your apartment or whether you can afford eggs.

It's whether this like that, whether the finances industry is, is booming and it's, it's really not right now.

Uh The 30 seconds that we have left.

Uh Rob, I'm just curious.

Uh Let me just go back to the book.

Were there any surprise moments or something that you were reminded of by following rich, powerful people?

Yes, I was surprised that so many people sort of even powerful people behind the scenes have always whispered about Rey and Bridgewater.

They've always said, oh my gosh, it's a cult.

And I thought that would be like a, a line that I couldn't touch.

And it turned out, I got emails from inside Bridgewater where people told Rey re people are calling us a cult.

I was like, oh, this is just, this is just out in the open.

So I, I was, I was, I was sort of blown away by that and I'm just reminded also is having covered the space that like, you just, you never know what's going on behind, behind closed doors no matter how much you try.

Well, indeed, a, a good read Rob Copeland, uh author of the, the new book, The Fun Ray Dalio Bridgewater Associates and the Unraveling of a Wall Street legend, Rob.

Good to see you.

Appreciate it.

And that's it for the latest edition of opening bid.

Ray Dalio: de ‘caddie’ a amasar una fortuna de 18.000 millones

El financiero creó con solo 26 años un ‘hedge fund’ que se acabó convirtiendo en el más grande del mundo.

Un chaval espigado de 12 años acarrea una bolsa llena de palos de golf. Es el año 1961. El adolescente se llama Ray Dalio y proviene de una familia de origen italiano. Su padre -Marino Dallolio- es saxofonista de jazz en Nueva York. Ray acompaña a George Leib, un banquero de inversión de Wall Street que acude a jugar y a cerrar negocios a The Links Golf Club, en Long Island, al este de Manhattan. El muchacho tarda casi dos horas en llegar desde su casa. Pero no le importa. Allí puede escuchar las conversaciones de Leib con otros financieros. Sus oídos no pierden detalle. 60 años después, Dalio se jubilará coronado como uno de los mayores genios de la inversión y con una fortuna de casi 20.000 millones de dólares, gracias a la creación de Bridgewaters, el mayor hedge fund del mundo , con 130.000 millones de dólares bajo gestión. Esta es su historia.

Ray Dalio (Nueva York, 1949) es una encarnación -otra más- del sueño americano. De familia humilde, trabajó de joven repartiendo periódicos, quitando nieve y como caddie de golf. Durante unos años llevó los palos de varios financieros, pero fue su relación con Leib y su mujer la que le abrió las puertas de la alta sociedad neoyorkina. El mundo al que quería pertenecer. El matrimonio le acabó invitando a una de las veladas que celebraban en su exclusivo apartamento de Park Avenue y uno de sus hijos le brindó la oportunidad de hacer sus primeras prácticas, en una firma de corretaje de acciones. Dalio, por su parte, cumplió con su parte del guion: empezó a invertir siendo adolescente -se dice que logró duplicar sus primeras acciones gracias a un chivatazo en uno de esos partidos de golf-, fue becario en la Bolsa de Nueva York y cursó un máster en la Universidad de Harvard.

El salto definitivo lo dio en 1975, dos años después de graduarse. Tras trabajar para varias firmas de inversión, decidió fundar su propia empresa, gracias al apoyo de algunos clientes adinerados a los que había hecho ganar mucho dinero. Bridgewaters Associates se dedicaba al principio al puro asesoramiento. Para ricos y empresas. Dalio era experto en analizar las tendencias macroeconómicas y predecir los movimientos del mercado de divisas y de materias primas... Uno de sus primeros grandes clientes fue la cadena de hamburgueserías McDonald’s. Luego llegaría el contrato para gestionar las pensiones de los trabajadores del Banco Mundial y de Kodak.

Tras esquivar la crisis bursátil de 1987, la fama de Dalio se disparó y para 1991 su empresa Bridgewaters lanzó su primer fondo de inversión libre ( hedge fund , en la jerga), un tipo de vehículo que tiene la máxima libertad para decidir dónde, cuánto y cómo invertir. El primer vehículo, llamado Pure Alpha (en referencia a la terminología que se utiliza para referirse a la rentabilidad obtenida por el gestor solo por su talento, y no por la tendencia el mercado) fue un éxito de ventas y de retornos desde el principio. Durante el tiempo que Dalio llevó las riendas de este fondo, logró un retorno medio anual de casi un 13% y logró esquivar la burbuja de las hipotecas subprime .

Sobre cómo consiguió Dalio estos buenos resultados en sus inversiones se han escrito cientos de artículos, pero lo cierto es que sigue siendo un misterio. Los mencionados hedge funds , por su naturaleza jurídica, casi no tienen que dar cuenta de las estrategias que utilizan para invertir. Cuando le han preguntado al gestor, siempre argumenta que el éxito de Bridgewaters Associates se fundamenta en la pura competencia interna, en permitir que las ideas de inversión provengan de cualquier empleado, en que las tesis sean contrastadas por los propios compañeros y después por el mercado. Una suerte de darwinismo de Wall Street. Valga la redundancia.

Ahora bien, esa pátina meritocrática se empezó a resquebrajar el día mismo que se jubiló Dalio, en 2022. El primer año sin tener a su fundador dirigiendo la orquesta de inversión, el fondo bandera -el mencionado Pure Alpha- perdió un 7,6%. Y eso que el ejercicio 2023 fue muy positivo para casi todos los mercados financieros. La Bolsa de Estados Unidos subió un 23% y la europea un 13%. Fue entonces cuando empezaron a saltar algunas alarmas.

El periódico The New York Times realizó una extensa investigación sobre el asunto hace unos meses . A falta de fuentes oficiales, su reportero tuvo que hablar con un puñado de antiguos empleados de Bridgewaters Associates para tratar de desentrañar el misterio. Según la investigación, la clave del éxito se basa en la extensísima red de contactos tejida por Dalio a lo largo de décadas.

Para darse cuenta del halo de dudas que rodea la estrategia de inversión del hedge fund , hay que recordar que el supervisor de los mercados financieros en Estados Unidos (la SEC, por sus siglas en inglés) llegó a iniciar una investigación para ver si se trataba de una estafa piramidal, como la que desarrolló durante años Bernard Madoff, que dejó un agujero de 64.000 millones de dólares . Pero no. No era un esquema Ponzi.

De acuerdo con los ex empleados de la firma, Dalio ha sabido cortejar a altos funcionarios de países de todo el mundo, de Kazajastán a Arabia Saudí, para tratar de comprender qué tipo de políticas económicas van a poner en marcha. Un buen ejemplo es que el inversor trataba con cierta frecuencia con el ex presidente del Banco Central Europeo Mario Draghi, o que asesoró al Banco Nacional de Suiza. También tejió relaciones con varios mandamases del régimen chino.

El gestor siempre ha quitado importancia a estos contactos y en cambio ha querido transmitir una máxima transparencia con la publicación del libro Principios, donde sintetiza su estilo de inversión. En él se habla del pensamiento independiente, del valor de la humildad, de evitar los sesgos... Pero lo cierto es que, más allá de ciertas generalidades, su forma de operar sigue siendo un misterio.

Sigue toda la información de Cinco Días en Facebook , X y Linkedin , o en nuestra newsletter Agenda de Cinco Días

Newsletters

Para seguir leyendo este artículo de cinco días necesitas una suscripción premium de el país, sobre la firma, más información.

Peter Lynch (Magellan), el gestor que fraguó su leyenda en la calle fijándose en Dunkin’ Donuts

Peter Wallenberg, el patriarca del clan que controla la mitad de la Bolsa de Suecia

Archivado en.

• Gestoras fondos
• Fondos inversión
• Inversión financiera
• Planes pensiones