Bridgewater founder Ray Dalio speaks in Shanghai on April 8, 2026.
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SHANGHAI/BEIJING – Hedge fund magnate Ray Dalio is optimistic that the highly anticipated meeting of the U.S. and Chinese presidents next month could go a long way in calming bilateral tensions.
“The next meeting will have a special emphasis on trade as well as capital flows,” the Bridgewater Associates founder told CNBC’s Eunice Yun in Shanghai on Wednesday.
Dalio said he hoped the two leaders would demonstrate “empathy” and work together through challenges. “Investors should be encouraged by these things,” he said, adding that this “carries over” to investments and markets.
While the three major U.S. averages have recovered from losses suffered during trade tensions nearly a year ago, the S&P 500 is still down more than 3% so far this year on concerns stemming from the Iran war.
US President Donald Trump is going to Beijing on May 14 and 15 to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping. Trump was originally scheduled to visit in late March, but plans were delayed due to the Iran war.
Dalio, who wore a pin with the flags of both the US and China, said the lack of communication between the US and China is the “biggest source” of bilateral tension.
He was in Shanghai for a ceremony marking the end of a 10-day ocean exploration trip, organized by his non-profit OceanX. We And Sugar Group to support bilateral relations. Dalio founded OceanX in 2016 with his son Mark to promote the exploration and management of marine resources.
The US Consul General in Shanghai and the Chinese city’s vice mayor also attended the Shanghai event. Ten students each from both the countries participated in the trip that started in Hong Kong.
“The Sino-American relationship and the oceans are the two most important things for the well-being of humanity,” Dalio said.
As US-China tensions have increased over the past few years, climate has become widely seen as a rare area of cooperation between the two countries.
Dalio said the Trump-Xi meeting next month could be the first of four face-to-face meetings this year. “The world order is changing and these two leaders need to discuss how to better adapt to it,” he said.
The presidents of the world’s two largest economies last met in South Korea, where they agreed to reduce tariffs for a year. Beijing also postponed the implementation of strict rare earth export controls until the same period.
When Dalio was asked about the Iran war and Trump’s announcement of a two-week ceasefire, he emphasized that investors should look beyond “the news of the day” and said “There is a kind of world war going onIn a LinkedIn post published on Tuesday, he said the current combination of military confrontation, geopolitical and economic tensions is comparable to previous world wars.
