Wall Street celebrated as President Donald Trump backed down from his wide-ranging tariffs—for now.
Trump paused the levies for 90 days and lowered the reciprocal tariff to a baseline 10%, except for China, which will face a 125% tariff rate. The pause sent the S&P 500 on a 9.5% rally Wednesday, while the Nasdaq surged 12%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average shot up 8%. It was the largest point gain for all three indexes in their five-decade-plus histories.
Still, equities have taken a major beating from the tariff back-and-forth, and the indexes are in the red for the year.
It’s been more than two years since ChatGPT upended society, and artificial intelligence is still the center of the business world. Forbes’ seventh annual AI 50 list includes major players like OpenAI and Anthropic, but there are also newcomers such as Anysphere (better known as Cursor), which helps engineers write and edit code, and AI language tutor app Speak, valued at $2.5 billion and $1 billion, respectively.
Despite the temporary relief from many of President Donald Trump’s tariffs, the trade war with Beijing is red hot. China imposed an 84% retaliatory tariff against the U.S. shortly after a 104% tariff on Chinese imports to the U.S. took effect Wednesday. And the European Union voted to impose new levies on a range of products imported from the U.S. in retaliation for Trump’s 25% global tax on steel and aluminum exports, which so far does not appear to be affected by the 90-day pause.
Tether, the world’s largest issuer of the $144 billion USDT stablecoin, wants a seat at the table as competing stablecoin bills advance in both chambers of Congress. And the company, long seen as dodging U.S. oversight, is planning to launch its own AI platform, a peer-to-peer alternative to models like OpenAI.
Forbes 30 Under 30 alum Ashley Thompson started Mush, an overnight oats brand, in 2015, and since then, the business has risen to around $50 million in estimated annual revenue. Thompson is preparing for tariffs on key ingredients, but she says Mush is ready to eat the additional costs that might arise.
A founder of controversial facial recognition firm Clearview AI was ousted from the company’s board Tuesday, and co-CEO Hal Lambert told Forbes “We are taking the company in a different direction.” The ouster of cofounder Hoan Ton-That comes after he had stepped down as CEO and became president in December amid the company’s ongoing struggles to secure major federal government contracts and raise funding, only to resign as president last month.
President Donald Trump told reporters Wednesday a deal to save TikTok from a ban in the U.S. is still “on the table,” making the announcement shortly after he raised tariff rates against China. The social media company has until mid-June to sell or divest its assets to an American company, and Trump said the deal is “moving along,” but he noted that “China’s not exactly thrilled about signing it.”
Acting IRS commissioner Melanie Krause is leaving her position after the tax agency reached an agreement to share immigrant tax data with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Conversations that Forbes has had with existing IRS employees suggest they would rather leave their positions than serve in immigration-related roles under the current administration, and Krause seems to have taken a similar tack. She is the fourth commissioner or acting commissioner to leave the agency in less than 80 days.
The Trump Administration’s war on higher education is leading some of America’s richest institutions to borrow billions to maintain status quo operations. Colleges and universities issued $11.6 billion in municipal bonds in the first quarter of 2025, making it the highest quarter on record for the higher education municipal bond market, according to Lisa Washburn, managing director at Municipal Market Analytics.
DAILY COVER STORY
Artificial intelligence company Writer has drafted thousands of product description blurbs for cosmetics giant L’Oreal, answers to frequently asked questions for Uber, and Salesforce uses it to quickly gin up email and social media marketing campaigns.
Those are just three of the 300 companies that pay—sometimes millions—to use Writer’s customizable AI apps to automate everyday time-consuming work. The enthusiastic embrace of enterprise has helped Writer, one of the sizzling startups featured on the Forbes AI 50, raise some $320 million from top venture capitalists. Its November $200 million round valued the company at $1.9 billion.
At a time when so many companies are trying to figure out exactly how AI can help grow their business—and whether the investment is worth it—Writer’s customers are using its tools to cut costs in a material way. One health product retailer says it is saving $5 million in marketing agency costs annually because it uses Writer’s AI to advertise its products on TikTok, Amazon and Walmart. One of its top AI executives expects that number to balloon to $25 million in the next two years.
Those kinds of savings have spiked Writer’s net retention rate to a stunning 160%, indicating that customers end up expanding their contracts by 60% on average. CEO and cofounder May Habib says that 20 customers started with contracts between $200,000 and $300,000, quickly found new ways to use Writer’s tools, and are now spending about $1 million each.
WHY IT MATTERS With the enterprise AI software market poised to nearly double to $114 billion by 2027, competition is stiff. Deep-pocketed OpenAI and Anthropic, which have raised a collective $42 billion, sell the bare bones models that businesses can then use to build tools. But they typically require a team of developers to calibrate, deploy and update. Writer’s tech is largely plug-and-play, with user-friendly drag and drop interfaces.
MORE These Chinese AI Companies Could Be The Next DeepSeek
FACTS + COMMENTS
International travel to the U.S. took a big hit last month amid tariff backlash and stricter immigration tactics, according to government data. Both the U.K. and Germany warned citizens last month about traveling to the U.S. due to the possibility of being detained by American immigration authorities:
17%: The decline in visitors from Western Europe in March compared to the same period last year, according to the National Travel and Tourism Office
20.5%: The predicted drop in tourists from Canada this year, per Tourism Economics
‘It will likely persist… through the remainder of Trump’s term’: Analysts at Tourism Economics said of the negative impact to international travel
STRATEGY + SUCCESS
Whether you’re a job seeker or recruiting for a role, when it comes to hiring, character matters more than credentials. Trust your instincts—and if you’ve got doubts, ask deeper questions and note their unspoken behavior, like how they handle follow-up after the interview. Strive to have real conversations about life experiences, rather than running through a list of generic interview questions.
QUIZ
An industry leader in the U.S. says it is cooperating with the Justice Department in an investigation over inflated pricing. What is the DOJ investigating?
A. Insurance premiums
B. Utility costs
C. College tuition
D. Egg suppliers
Thanks for reading! This edition of Forbes Daily was edited by Sarah Whitmire.