Bridgewater Q1 portfolio adjustment: Alibaba holdings surged 21 times, Nvidia reduced

According to the latest 13F regulatory filings disclosed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Bridgewater Associates, the world's largest hedge fund, made significant adjustments to its portfolio in the first quarter of 2025. Founded by Ray Dalio, this asset management giant has expanded its investments across various sectors, including technology, consumer, and finance.

Firstly, Bridgewater significantly increased its holdings in streaming giant Netflix (NFLX.US) by 30,500 shares, while reducing its stake in semiconductor equipment leader Lam Research (LRCX.US) by 570,000 shares to 1.96 million shares, and also decreased its position in chip giant Nvidia (NVDA.US) by 660,000 shares to 2.84 million shares.

Notably, Bridgewater's adjustments in technology stocks exhibit a "new and old transition" characteristic—while reducing its holdings in traditional hardware suppliers, it maintained stable positions in cloud computing infrastructure service providers. For example, the fund increased its holdings in payment giant PayPal (PYPL.US) by 52.5% quarter-over-quarter (from 2.36 million shares to 3.60 million shares) and raised its stake in cloud service provider Microsoft (MSFT.US) by 21.3% (from 667,000 shares to 809,400 shares).

Additionally, Bridgewater increased its holdings in the airline sector by 1.53 million shares of United Airlines (UAL.US), added 272,400 shares in the insurance sector for Chubb (CB.US), and increased its stake in investment banking giant Goldman Sachs (GS.US) by 95,100 shares.

In the consumer sector, the fund saw explosive growth in its holdings of e-commerce giant Alibaba (BABA.US), surging from 255,000 shares at the end of last year to 5.66 million shares, an increase of over 21 times, while simultaneously liquidating all its holdings in cosmetics retailer Ulta Beauty (ULTA.US).

In the healthcare sector, Bridgewater completely exited its positions in four healthcare companies: 3M (MMM.US), Amgen (AMGN.US), Herbalife (HLF.US), and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries (TEVA.US), contrasting with its continued increase in technology stocks. This industry allocation adjustment reflects the fund's strategic focus on post-pandemic consumption recovery and technological innovation.

In terms of traditional industry layout, Bridgewater increased its holdings in Microsoft from 667,000 shares to 809,400 shares, but reduced its stake in e-commerce giant eBay by 450,000 shares to 1.33 million shares, indicating a structural adjustment within technology stocks. It is noteworthy that the fund adopted a "increase in leading stocks, decrease in trailing stocks" strategy in the financial sector, cautiously maintaining its allocation to regional financial institutions while increasing its stake in Goldman Sachs.

Overall, this portfolio adjustment reveals three major investment logics of Bridgewater: first, betting on structural opportunities in technology stocks brought about by accelerated digital transformation; second, optimistic about the recovery elasticity in sectors such as aviation and payments against the backdrop of consumption recovery; and third, optimizing the risk-reward ratio of the portfolio through increased industry concentration