Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio is joining Indonesia’s new sovereign wealth fund, Danantara, as a special advisor.
The fund announced on Monday that Dalio is part of a “dream team” of advisors that includes economist Jeffrey Sachs and former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
Last month, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto launched Danantara to manage national investments and consolidate several state-owned companies.
The fund is focused on “high-impact projects that will create significant added value for our nation, will create real benefits, create quality jobs, and bring long-term prosperity to the people of Indonesia,” Prabowo said.
He said Danantara would start with a $20 billion initial investment budget and eventually manage assets worth more than $900 billion. The fund plans to invest in national industrialization and projects focusing on processing natural resources.
A sovereign wealth fund is a government-owned investment fund made of money generated by the government. They typically invest in a variety of assets like stocks, bonds, startups, and real estate. Singaporean state-owned investment fund Temasek has a net portfolio value of $290 billion, while Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global, the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, is valued at approximately $1.79 trillion.
Dalio founded Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge fund, in 1975. He has written several books on financial and economic history and has spoken frequently about the soaring debt problems in the US and China.
He is worth $16.2 billion, per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. His representative did not respond to a request for comment.
Indonesian sovereign wealth fund under scrutiny
Dalio joins Danantara at a time when the sovereign wealth fund is under scrutiny about transparency and governance.
This month, Prabowo’s administration started transferring ownership of 40 state-owned companies to Danatara. The sovereign wealth fund reports directly to the Indonesian president.
Investor concerns over Prabowo’s grip on power have contributed to a slump in Indonesia’s stock market — the largest by market cap in Southeast Asia.
Indonesia’s benchmark Jakarta Composite Index is one of the world’s worst performers this year. It’s down 12% in 2025 as foreign investors flee, pulling over $2 billion from the market, according to Bloomberg estimates.
Meanwhile, the Indonesian rupiah is also one of the worst-performing emerging market currencies this year. On Tuesday, the rupiah hit its lowest level since June 1998 amid the Asian Financial Crisis.
