Harvard, Yale Face Major Increase to Endowment Tax in House Plan
Republican lawmakers proposed to significantly increase taxes on the richest US universities, broadening a fight between the Trump administration and elite higher education.
Private colleges and universities with at least 500 students and endowments exceeding $2 million per student would pay a rate of 21% on net investment income under a bill released Monday as part of the House's plan to extend the 2017 tax cuts. That's up from the current tax of 1.4%.
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Forbes
8 minutes ago
- Forbes
How SAP Is Managing AI And Data To Meet ERP Customers Where They Are
SAP CEO Christian Klein opened SAP Sapphire 2025 by highlighting today's business uncertainty and ... More emphasizing SAP's focus on helping customers adapt to new trade rules, regulations and technologies. The discussions at SAP's Sapphire 2025 event in Orlando were different than in previous years — focused, grounded and more customer-centric. SAP's key message was clear: ERP transformation doesn't need to be disruptive, nor is it one-size-fits-all. This is so important — and welcome — because many customers are still operating in hybrid computing environments, managing legacy on-premises systems while also moving some functions to the cloud, and they're navigating complex change cycles. Instead of urging them to leap into the unknown, SAP presented a more modular path centered on embedded AI, flexible data platforms and tools built to meet organizations where they are. I think this pragmatic messaging is a smart approach for SAP, and it was backed up by the announcements from the company throughout the conference. (Note: SAP is an advisory client of my firm, Moor Insights & Strategy.) One of the core architectural shifts discussed was SAP's effort to unify its platform. This is realized through tighter integration of the Business Technology Platform, SAP Business Suite and the Business Data Cloud, which entered controlled general availability earlier this year. BDC, which I wrote about in an earlier Forbes piece, consolidates services including SAP Datasphere, HANA Cloud, SAP Analytics Cloud and BW/4HANA into a single managed environment. It supports both SAP and non-SAP data and is built to reduce fragmentation, simplify access and support analytics, AI models and simulations without data duplication. BDC also includes extended support for older SAP BW systems, offering customers a bridge to modern cloud analytics with less disruption. Meanwhile, the Business Technology Platform (which you'll hear the company call BTP) continues to serve as SAP's foundation for extensibility and automation. On top of that, SAP Build — a tool for creating apps with little to no coding — now includes AI features to help generate code, design user interfaces and automate business logic. These improvements should help both technical and business teams build applications more efficiently and manage workflows with less effort. Integrating Joule — the company's generative AI assistant — across SAP Build, Analytics Cloud and key business applications reflects SAP's intention to make AI a daily utility, not a separate layer or some special extra feature. Among other functions, Joule can now generate and automate processes, surface contextual insights, launch prebuilt AI agents tailored to specific functions, answer natural-language questions and recommend actions based on real-time business data. SAP's AI assistant, Joule, helps orchestrate processes across key business areas such as finance, ... More supply chain, HR and customer experience. SAP's AI strategy is now rooted in an AI-first approach, with AI embedded across the portfolio, and its updated platform reflects this shift. At the center of this is the 'Business AI flywheel,' SAP's framework for linking applications, real-time data and AI — including agents — to support continuous improvement. This 'flywheel' concept includes the Business Data Cloud and Joule. Indeed, Joule plays a central role in this strategy. It's no longer just a task-based assistant — it's becoming an interface that works across products. With integrations for WalkMe (which SAP acquired in 2024) for in-app guidance and Perplexity AI for contextual search, Joule can provide real-time support based on company data. At Sapphire 2025, SAP also introduced AI Foundation, a centralized environment for building, managing and deploying AI agents. To keep those agents working properly, tools like Joule Studio and governance features powered by SAP LeanIX allow organizations to track how AI agents align with business capabilities. Looking ahead, SAP plans to embed AI into 400 business use cases by the end of 2025, reflecting its commitment to making AI part of the everyday experience rather than a standalone function. At the conference, SAP also introduced new intelligent applications built on the Business Data Cloud. These apps address specific needs — People Intelligence for workforce planning, Green Ledger for sustainability reporting, Spend Control Tower for managing procurement and supplier risk, 360 Customer for enhancing customer insights and engagement and the Sustainability Tower for tracking and improving ESG performance. Rather than offering broad, unfocused capabilities, each of these apps is designed to use AI and simulation to support targeted business scenarios. Support for ERP transformation projects remains a priority. SAP has repositioned its RISE with SAP and GROW with SAP programs to reflect the distinct needs of existing and new ERP customers. RISE with SAP is a comprehensive transformation framework for current on-premises SAP ERP customers that are moving to S/4HANA in the cloud. Meanwhile, GROW with SAP focuses on net-new customers adopting SAP cloud-based ERP and includes community-based support and best practices. Both programs are backed by SAP's Integrated Toolchain, which enables architectural modeling, scenario simulation, governance and user adoption planning. The Business Transformation Center, which comes with SAP support licenses, is another potentially helpful addition. BTC helps customers move their systems step by step, archiving old ones. This is a big deal for customers who are hesitant to make significant changes. SAP Build has also been improved to support these transformation projects with low-code and pro-code extensions powered by embedded AI. SCM was one of the more practical focus areas at the event. SAP showed how AI agents help with tasks like demand forecasting, supply chain planning and spotting issues in logistics and operations. Some customers shared early results, saying they've seen better visibility, faster cycle times and improved compliance, especially as they deal with today's shifting trade rules and global supply chain uncertainty. SAP connected this to the idea of Industry 5.0, where automation and AI still leave room for human judgment, accountability and transparency. That message seemed to land especially well with customers in healthcare, manufacturing and the public sector, where AI explainability makes a big difference. SAP also highlighted its growing partner ecosystem, which continues to expand the company's AI and data capabilities. Partners include Google Cloud for machine learning and analytics, Microsoft for productivity tools and infrastructure and AWS for industry-specific AI use cases. Accenture is supporting pre-configured cloud solutions to speed up deployment. Palantir contributes to operational modeling, while Cohere, Mistral AI and Deloitte's Zora AI focus on bringing scalable language models into SAP's environment. As touched on earlier, the partnership with Perplexity AI adds real-time, context-aware search directly into Joule. Databricks — already integrated with SAP's Business Data Cloud through a special partnership — is helping accelerate AI model development. Syniti is working with SAP to address data quality and data readiness, which is a key hurdle for many organizations. To its credit, SAP did not downplay the ongoing hurdles that its customers face. At the event, different customers expressed concern over pricing clarity, the complexity of transitioning to cloud deployments, the delayed availability of key features like full BDC rollout and Joule agent capabilities, and the challenge of mapping all the new tools to practical use cases. Many enterprises also still face foundational issues such as data fragmentation, siloed processes and limited organizational capacity for change. While SAP's tools are definitely improving, customers still need stronger enablement measures and more tailored roadmaps to act with confidence. With this in mind, I think SAP would benefit from focusing more on practical, outcome-driven roadmaps that show customers how new tools actually solve real business problems. It should make it easier to understand how features such as Joule and BDC fit into day-to-day workflows, not just how they fit conceptually. Customers also need more hands-on help — like clear migration plans, industry-specific examples and partner workshops — to build confidence and move forward faster. SAP Sapphire 2025 made it clear that SAP is focusing on helping customers move forward without forcing big, disruptive changes. This year's updates were about making things easier to manage — like better integration across BTP, the SAP Business Suite and the Business Data Cloud. That kind of unification matters for customers trying to connect data, simplify their systems and get more value from what they already have. SAP also expanded its partner network in useful ways to give customers access to more resources, whether that means getting help with cloud infrastructure, AI model development or real-time search. These are practical ways to expand what SAP can offer without trying to build everything in-house. I think customers still have concerns. Many are cautious about moving to the cloud, and with good reason — data cleanup, change management, pricing clarity and keeping things running during the transition are all real challenges. SAP's tools like the BTC and the reworked RISE with SAP and GROW with SAP programs are built to help with this, but organizations want clear guidance, too. In the end, SAP's message was that transformation doesn't have to mean tearing everything out and starting over. Most customers aren't looking for dramatic change; they want progress they can manage. SAP is starting to reflect that more in its products and messaging, and the shift is noticeable. For the ERP world, it's a reminder that the best path forward might not be the fastest, but the one that actually fits.
The Hill
11 minutes ago
- The Hill
Watchdog investigating whether Hegseth aides were asked to delete Signal messages: Report
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon's watchdog is looking into whether any of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's aides were asked to delete Signal messages that may have shared sensitive military information with a reporter, according to two people familiar with the investigation and documents reviewed by The Associated Press. The inspector general's request focuses on how information about the March 15 airstrikes on Houthi targets in Yemen was shared on the messaging app. This comes as Hegseth is scheduled to testify before Congress next week for the first time since his confirmation hearing. He is likely to face questions under oath not only about his handling of sensitive information but also the wider turmoil at the Pentagon following the departures of several senior aides and an internal investigation over information leaks. Hegseth already has faced questions over the installation of an unsecured internet line in his office that bypassed the Pentagon's security protocols and revelations that he shared details about the military strikes in multiple Signal chats. One of the chats included his wife and brother, while the other included President Donald Trump's top national security officials and inadvertently included The Atlantic's editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg. Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson had no comment on Friday, citing the pending investigation. The inspector general's office didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. Besides finding out whether anyone was asked to delete Signal messages, the inspector general also is asking some past and current staffers who were with Hegseth on the day of the strikes who posted the information and who had access to his phone, according to the two people familiar with the investigation and the documents reviewed by the AP. The people were not authorized to discuss the investigation and spoke on the condition of anonymity. Democratic lawmakers and a small number of Republicans have said that the information Hegseth posted to the Signal chats before the military jets had reached their targets could have put those pilots' lives at risk and that for any lower-ranking members of the military it would have led to their firing. Hegseth has said none of the information was classified. Multiple current and former military officials have said there is no way details with that specificity, especially before a strike took place, would have been OK to share on an unsecured device. 'I said repeatedly, nobody is texting war plans,' Hegseth told Fox News Channel in April after reporting emerged about the chat that included his family members. 'I look at war plans every day. What was shared over Signal then and now, however you characterize it, was informal, unclassified coordinations, for media coordinations and other things. That's what I've said from the beginning.' Trump has made clear that Hegseth continues to have his support, saying during a Memorial Day speech at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia that the defense secretary 'went through a lot' but 'he's doing really well.' Hegseth has limited his public engagements with the press since the Signal controversy. He has yet to hold a Pentagon press briefing, and his spokesman has briefed reporters there only once. The inspector general is investigating Hegseth at the request of the Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, and the committee's top Democrat, Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island. Signal is a publicly available app that provides encrypted communications, but it can be hacked and is not approved for carrying classified information. On March 14, one day before the strikes against the Houthis, the Defense Department cautioned personnel about the vulnerability of the app. Trump has said his administration targeted the Houthis over their 'unrelenting campaign of piracy, violence and terrorism.' He has noted the disruption Houthi attacks caused through the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, key waterways for energy and cargo shipments between Asia and Europe through Egypt's Suez Canal. The Houthi rebels attacked more than 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones, sinking two vessels and killing four sailors, between November 2023 until January this year. Their leadership described the attacks as aimed at ending the Israeli war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Yahoo
12 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Elon Musk's Net Worth Takes $27 Billion Hit Amid Feud With Pres. Donald Trump
Elon Musk's exit from President Donald Trump's White House has resulted in the two towering figures feuding online, with the richest man in the world's net worth taking a significant hit due to the back-and-forth. Finance pub Forbes reports that Musk's net worth fell below $400 billion this Thursday, dropping from $414.7 billion to $388 billion, a difference of around $26.7 billion. More specifically, Musk's Tesla stock declined 14%, or $47 per share, to $285 on what Forbes calls, 'an otherwise flat day for the market.' The drop in value came almost immediately after Musk and Pres. Trump began exchanging blows on social media Thursday (June 5), with Musk claiming that Trump would've never been elected for a second term if it were not for him (Musk spent nearly $300 million backing Trump and other Republicans in last year's election) while Trump accused Musk of having 'Trump Derangement Syndrome.' Musk also accused Trump of being listed on the Jefferey Epstein files, suggesting the current president has a direct connection to the late sex offender and financier. 'Time to drop the really big bomb,' Musk wrote on X, which he owns. '[Trump] is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public.' He later followed up, 'Mark this post for the future. The truth will come out.' The rift seemingly began after Musk exited his role as one of Trump's advisors and head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Soon after, Elon called out Trump and Republicans for passing the One Big Beautiful Bill, which Musk deemed a 'massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill' that is a 'disgusting abomination.' Trump fired back by suggesting he would terminate government contracts with Musk's businesses, which include rocket company SpaceX and its satellite unit Starlink. This threat is possibly what led to Musk's businesses dropping in value literally overnight. The Hill reports that White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt called Thursday's spat 'an unfortunate episode from Elon, who is unhappy with the One Big Beautiful Bill because it does not include the policies he wanted. The President is focused on passing this historic piece of legislation and making our country great again.' More from Donald Trump's Pardon For NBA YoungBoy Could Be In Jeopardy Donald Trump Announces Travel Ban And Restrictions Affecting 19 Countries Following Terrorist Attack In Colorado Elon Musk Slams Donald Trump Agenda Bill Days After White House Exit Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
