Latest news with #Axios
Axios
2 hours ago
- Business
- Axios
Silicon Valley is pushing revival of game-changing tax benefit for startups
Silicon Valley is pushing senators to follow the House's lead in reviving a favorable tax benefit that disappeared several years ago. Why it matters: This could change the math for a slew of startups, and even Big Tech companies. The big picture: U.S. companies currently are unable to fully deduct many software development and other R&D costs, including certain employee salaries, from their taxable income. That's because of a change made to Section 174 of the tax code during the 2017 tax bill negotiations, in order to make the budgetary impact of tax cuts more politically palatable. It became effective in 2022. It requires that such costs be amortized over five years, rather than taken in the year the costs are incurred — much like a one-time capital outlay that depreciates, even though compensation expenses tend to be repeated annually. Zoom in: Startups tend to be unprofitable, which should mean that they don't pay federal tax. But that got flipped on its head with the Section 174 change, since many of a startup's costs now get applied to future taxes. In short, it can make unprofitable companies look profitable for tax purposes. According to a recent survey by fintech upstart Mercury, which was shared exclusively with Axios, 73% of respondents say that their companies have had a negative financial impact from the 2022 change. Some 44% of respondents said it forced operational changes, including canceled projects and layoffs. How it works: The House bill would allow for full expensing in the same year that the costs were incurred, but would not apply that change retroactively to 2022. A proposal from the Senate Finance Committee would make the change to Section 174 retroactive to 2022 for small companies and allow acceleration of remaining deductions for larger companies. Driving the news: More than 2,300 individuals recently signed a letter that was circulated on the Hacker News site run by startup incubator Y Combinator, asking the Senate to prioritize the retroactivity carveout. They included employees of OpenAI, Airbnb, Spotify, and Redfin. By the numbers: According to the Congressional Budget Office, the House provision — without retroactivity — would add $118 billion to the deficit over the next decade.
Axios
2 hours ago
- Business
- Axios
Trump's budget bill faces "nightmare scenario," Hawley warns
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) is warning that the Senate's version of " one, big beautiful bill" can't pass the House with the Medicaid changes it unveiled this week — urging leadership to change it fast and not to let the fight drag on. Why it matters: Hawley has been the loudest GOP voice fighting against Medicaid cuts. He was shocked and angered by the Senate going even further than the House to find Medicaid savings. House leadership's concerns could help his case. "It seems to me that now we're in a place where this provision is threatening the entire bill, and we just don't have time for that," Hawley told Axios in a phone interview. President Trump wants the bill on his desk on July 4, which White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles reiterated to senators this week. "I just think the idea of having now to go to a conference committee with the House because they say, well, we can't pass this... I mean, good lord, that's just a nightmare scenario," Hawley said. Zoom in: Reports have been surfacing that House leaders and Republican moderates do not think they can pass the Senate bill as-is. The changes to Medicaid and the state and local tax deduction (SALT) cap are the two biggest issues. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.)'s team has told people he has not been consulted on the changes, as Punchbowl reported. Hawley is willing to support the House version of the Medicaid provider tax, which froze it at 6%. What to watch: Earlier this week, Hawley told reporters he had been pitching solutions to leadership to help rural hospitals, which he and other Republicans worry would be hit hard by the even lower provider tax in the Senate bill. He still likes the idea of a rural hospital fund, but also wants to scrap the Senate's slow decrease of provider taxes to 3.5% for states that expanded Medicaid. "We could do both," Hawley said. "I mean, they're not mutually exclusive" Zoom out: Hawley has been clearly frustrated by the changes in the bill, but said he still supports Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.). "This is tough job," Hawley said. "I think he's doing a great job, and it's just... this is a hard job." The bottom line:"I'm 100% confident it will not get to the floor the way they introduced it on Monday," Hawley said. "They will have to change it."
Axios
2 hours ago
- Business
- Axios
X hires its third public relations lead in less than a year
Elon Musk's X has brought on a new head of U.S. public relations, its third in less than a year, Axios has learned. Why it matters: Both Musk and CEO Linda Yaccarino continue to downplay the value of traditional media and public relations. Driving the news: X has hired Rosemarie Esposito as senior manager, media strategy for the Americas and Victoria Gillespie as director, media strategy for EMEA/MENA/Africa. Between the lines: The social media platform continues to have a strained relationship with the media and advertisers, which was on full display this week at Cannes Lions. On Monday at an Axios event in Cannes, Yaccarino repeatedly dismissed a Wall Street Journal report that X was threatening to sue advertisers if they didn't buy ads on the platform. When Axios' Sara Fischer asked Yaccarino about this, she replied by slamming the WSJ, saying "Does anyone still read that publication?" "I saw on the beach that they were giving it away for free this morning. So that probably says something," she added. Yes, but: In January, Yaccarino brought on former Wall Street Journal editor John Stoll to lead its news partnerships. Catch up quick: X has been a revolving door for communication professionals. Esposito succeeds Dave Heinzinger — who departed the company after only three months — and Joe Benarroch, who led X's media and communications efforts until June of 2024. Details: Esposito joins X from Blue Origin, where she served three years as senior public relations manager. She held previous roles at Medidata, IBM, and Hotwire PR. Gillespie is the first communications hire outside of the U.S. since Musk gutted the function, shortly after taking ownership. She previously led communications for Snap Inc in the U.K. and supported corporate communications at Channel 4. The intrigue: Esposito does not appear to have an active X account, though she has a presence across Instagram, Threads and LinkedIn. Gillespie has not posted on the platform since 2021 — prior to Musk's takeover. What to watch: With these hires, plus Stoll's recent appointment, it appears as though X is looking to re-engage with traditional media while simultaneously questioning its influence.
Sky News AU
3 hours ago
- Politics
- Sky News AU
Global Islamic politics expert says Israel's claims about Iranian nuclear weapon 'at odds' with intelligence reports as Netanyahu 'desperate' to involve Trump in war
An Australian global Islamic politics expert has urged the world to be "sceptical" of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claims after numerous intelligence reports concluded that Iran is not "close at all" to building a nuclear weapon. Professor Greg Barton from Deakin University told Sky News Netanyahu's strategy to close down Iran's nuclear program may not be as "clear cut and simple", as he would present it to be to President Donald Trump, in an attempt to persuade the US to join the Israeli assault. "I think that the way that Benjamin Netanyahu will sell it to Trump is that you just send in a couple of B2s over Fordow and it's done," Mr Barton told Sky News host Steve Price. "You've closed down the nuclear program and we're good. "But of course, it is not likely to be so clear cut and so simple." According to Axios, President Trump believes the US has leverage over Iran due to its bunker buster munitions – which Israel does not have – that are capable of destroying the Fordow nuclear enrichment facility that sits deep under a mountain. Mr Barton added the bunker buster bombs are unlikely to demolish Iran's nuclear program and could instead result in dangerous escalation of war in the Middle East. 'First of all, those B2 strikes with massive ordnance, penetrator bombs over Fordow, 90 metres underground, that likely wouldn't finish Iran's nuclear program,' he said. 'They'd probably scramble to take what they have left and actually move towards nuclear weapons. 'In the meantime, they're likely to strike out against US targets all around the Middle East and use their proxies to do so. 'So a very dangerous risk of escalation and a prolonged conflict.' When questioned about the validity of Netanyahu's claims about Iran's existential threat to Israel, Mr Barton said they were 'at odds' with other publicly available intelligence reports have said, including what Trump was briefed on by his own security adviser. Mr Barton highlighted Israel's remarkable capabilities at penetrating Iranian society and its defence apparatus, but noted other intelligence reports suggest 'Iran is some way off, it's not close at all' to building a nuclear weapon. 'It is possible they know something that no one else knows, but what all the other intelligence reports are saying is that Iran is some way off, it's not close at all,' he said. 'We can't know, we're sort of making a claim from Netanyahu who is desperate to involve Trump and America in this programme, and on balance you sort of want to be a bit sceptical about what he's saying for that reason.' Israel has been trading missiles with Iran since last Friday in an attempt to shut down any efforts of Tehran building an atomic weapon to wipe out the existence of the Jewish state. Netanyahu said the operations were to "strike the head of Iran's nuclear weaponisation program". White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told a media briefing on Thursday, local time, she had been asked to pass on a 'direct quote' from President Trump on the possibility of US intervention in the Israel-Iran war. 'Based on the fact that there is a substantial chance of negotiations that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future, I will make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks,' she said, quoting the President. Ms Leavitt also urged sceptics of US involvement to 'trust' in President Trump's judgement, before emphasising his 'top priority' was to prevent Iran acquiring a nuclear weapon.
Engadget
3 hours ago
- Business
- Engadget
Cloudflare CEO says people aren't checking AI chatbots' source links
Companies that develop generative AI always make it a point to say that they include links to websites in the answers that their chatbots generate for users. But Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince has revealed to Axios that search traffic referrals keep plummeting. Publishers are facing an existential threat, he said, because people aren't clicking through those chatbot links and are relying more and more on AI summaries without digging deeper. Prince told Axios that 10 years ago, Google sent a publisher one visitor for every two pages it had crawled. Six months ago, the ratio was one visitor for every six pages, and now it's one for every 18. OpenAI sent one visitor to a publisher for every 250 pages it crawled six months ago, while Anthropic sent one visitor for every 6,000 pages. These days, OpenAI sends one visitor to a publisher for every 1,500 pages, whereas Anthropic sends one visitor for every 60,000 pages. People have come to trust AI chatbots more over the past few months. The problem for publishers is that they don't earn from advertisements if people don't click through links leading to their websites, and that's why Prince is encouraging them to take action to make sure they're fairly compensated. Prince said Cloudflare is currently working on a tool to block bots that scrape content for large language models even if a web page already has a "no crawl" instruction. If you'll recall, several outlets had reported in 2024 that AI companies have been ignoring websites' Robots Exclusion Protocol, or files and taking their content anyway to train their technologies. Cloudflare has been looking for ways to block scrapers since last year. But it was only in March when Cloudflare officially introduced AI Labyrinth, which uses AI-generated content to "slow down, confuse, and waste the resources of AI Crawlers and other bots that don't respect 'no crawl' directives." It works by linking an unauthorized crawler a series of AI-generated pages that are convincing enough but don't actually have the contents of the site the tool it's protecting. That way, the crawler ends up wasting time and resources. "I go to war every single day with the Chinese government, the Russian government, the Iranians, the North Koreans, probably Americans, the Israelis, all of them who are trying to hack into our customer sites," Prince said. "And you're telling me, I can't stop some nerd with a C-corporation in Palo Alto?"
