Tuesday, October 28, 2025

Ray Dalio is guided by gratitude: Why CEOs need to find their codifying principles

In today’s CEO Daily: Diane Brady reports from the final day of the Fortune Global Forum in Riyadh.
The big story: Amazon reportedly will cut 30,000 jobs.
The markets: Mostly in the red.
Plus: All the news and watercooler chat from Fortune.

Good morning. I asked Bridgewater founder Ray Dalio yesterday if he would want a digital twin of his late mother to talk to. He shook his head: “I don’t know how it would affect the grieving process or my memory of her. I just don’t know.” We had just come off stage at the Fortune Global Forum in Riyadh after a wide-ranging conversation about investing, the global economy and the principals behind how he’s building a “Digital Ray.”

Dalio once wrote that when he lost his mother at 19, “I couldn’t imagine ever laughing again. Now when I think of her, I smile.” It was a poignant illustration of loss and learning to let go that captured one of his guiding principles: gratitude. By keeping such principles top of mind, whether it’s investing in gold or creating an AI clone, Dalio is more likely to create the kind of playbook that’s made Bridgewater one of the world’s largest hedge funds and Dalio its celebrated philosopher king.

These past two days have reinforced for me the importance of codifying principles and creating a road map to achieve them. The clarity and ambition of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 plan is evident in the rapid development of Riyadh. As Saudi investment minister, H.E. Khalid A. Al-Falih, put it: “We’re not simply waiting for the future to arrive. We’re building it today, not alone, but together with our global partners.”

When I asked the U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves about whether her party had a comparable plan for Great Britain, she cited several initiatives and aspirations.

María Corina Machado, the Venezuelan opposition leader and 2025 Nobel Peace Prize winner who spoke to me while in hiding, has a clear vision for her country that she’d like to see the U.S. and other countries rally around, calling Venezuela a $1.7 trillion investment opportunity. While Machado may have praised President Trump for his willingness to take on Venezuela, she welcomes the help of any other country in addressing “the disaster this socialist system has wrought.” (Here is our full interview.)

CEOs like JLL’s Christian Ulbrich know firsthand the countries that are moving ahead with shared goals and a roadmap to get there, with Asia and the Middle East moving at a much faster pace than he’s seeing in much of Europe and North America. As he put it: “Other countries just have learned to move along much faster and more decisively, and that’s what we are seeing when you look at the growth rates in the world.”

More news below.

Contact CEO Daily via Diane Brady at diane.brady@fortune.com

Top news

Amazon cuts

Amazon is expected to start laying off as many as 30,000 corporate employees as soon as today in the tech giant’s largest headcount reduction since 2022, Reuters reports. The cuts are part of CEO Andy Jassy’s years-long belt-tightening amid increased AI spending and more cloud-computing competition.

Trump in Japan

U.S. President Donald Trump praised Japan’s new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi in their first meeting and promised they would “do tremendous trade together.” But the trade documents they signed only “confirmed their strong commitment to implementing” a deal.

Hurricane Melissa

The Category 5 storm with 175 m.p.h. winds is barreling towards Jamaica, where officials are warning that not enough people have evacuated. Budget shortfalls have hampered the World Food Program’s preparations in the Caribbean, and Trump administration cuts mean the National Weather Service is operating with reduced staff.

Bill Gates rejects ‘doomsday outlook’

Bill Gates, billionaire philanthropist, Microsoft co-founder, and author of the 2021 book How to Avoid a Climate Disaster, appears to be reframing his stance on climate change, arguing that a warming planet “will not lead to humanity’s demise” and pushing to help people in the developing world.

Ferrari CEO on new EV model

Ferrari announced its first fully electric vehicle earlier this month, to be produced in limited quantities and at a time when demand for EVs is trending lower. “If the client is happy, the investor is happy. The other way around is not always true,” Ferrari CEO Benedetto Vigna told Fortune.

AIG to acquire Everest Group’s portfolio, sources say

Insurance giant AIG plans to acquire the renewal rights for the majority of Everest Group’s global retail insurance portfolio, worth $2 billion in premiums, sources close to the deal told Fortune. If completed, the deal would add millions of policyholders to AIG’s customer base of more than 88 million.

Tesla chair urges shareholders to approve Musk’s $1 trillion pay package

Tesla Chair Robyn Denholm wrote a letter to company shareholders on Monday urging them to award CEO Elon Musk a proposed pay package worth as much as $1 trillion, maintaining that Musk is “essential to delivering shareholder returns.” Votes on the pay package, which faces growing opposition from proxy advisory firms, will be counted during a meeting on Nov. 6.