Why Harvard Can Afford To Reject Trump’s Demands

If you’ve heard about famed startup incubator Y Combinator, which counts Airbnb and Instacart among its biggest wins, there’s a highly selective rival that’s been quietly nurturing tomorrow’s tech stars.

Neo was founded by early Facebook investor Ali Partovi in 2017 to find and invest in top talent while they’re still in college. Take Michael Truell, who was studying at MIT when he became a Neo Scholar. Three years later, Partovi was the first investor in Truell’s startup Anysphere, maker of the wildly popular AI coding tool Cursor.

“Ali basically backed us when it was just the idea. We hadn’t really done anything else yet,” Truell told Forbes. Cursor reportedly hit $100 million in annualized revenue in a year, and has since doubled that.

FIRST UP

In a Truth Social post Tuesday, President Trump threatened that Harvard University could lose its tax-exempt status, a warning that comes after the Trump Administration froze $2.2 billion in federal funding and a $60 million federal contract for the university after it refused to agree to a list of White House demands that school administrators said blurred the lines of academic freedom.

MORE: In addition to Harvard, Forbes identified 38 schools that have the revenue diversity and the financial strength, primarily in the form of a large endowment, to resist the Trump Administration’s demands to come to heel under the guise of combating antisemitism on campus. The 389-year-old Cambridge, Mass. institution has a $53 billion endowment—the largest in the world—deep philanthropic connections, a AAA debt rating and relatively little reliance on federal support for its operations compared to some of its peers.

The Canadian government said Tuesday that U.S. automakers will be exempt from Canadian tariffs on “a certain number” of vehicles, provided they continue manufacturing in Canada. Such exemptions could impact American autoworkers who are at risk of being laid off due to the ongoing trade war. Stellantis and General Motors have already announced temporary layoffs for a number of employees.

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BUSINESS + FINANCE

The Hong Kong postal service on Wednesday announced it was suspending shipment of all packages to the U.S. as a result of the Trump Administration’s tariffs and the removal of the “de minimus” exemption that allowed lower value shipments to the U.S. duty free. City officials attacked President Donald Trump’s 145% tariff on all imports from China—which also applies to goods from the semi-autonomous city—saying: “The U.S. is unreasonable, bullying and imposing tariffs abusively.”

Small businesses are increasingly including salary ranges in their job postings, according to a survey from MetLife and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which found that 62% of small business owners plan to move toward pay transparency, up from 50% at the end of 2024. Younger business owners are driving the change: Nearly three-quarters of Gen Z and Millennial-owned businesses plan to list pay in job postings, compared to just 47% of Baby Boomers.

WEALTH + ENTREPRENEURSHIP

French billionaire Bernard Arnault saw his fortune drop by more than $11 billion Tuesday, as luxury goods conglomerate LVMH’s first quarter earnings showed an unexpected 3% decline in sales compared to the same period last year. As shares of LVMH tumbled, its market cap fell to $277 billion, elevating rival Hermès to the world’s most valuable luxury brand.

Viral social media posts from K-pop’s elite helped light up spicy Buldak instant noodles sales, and secured their creator Kim Jung-soo’s spot on Korea’s 50 Richest list for 2025. Kim was a stay-at-home mom until 1998, when she joined ramen giant Samyang Foods, and shares her $1.3 billion fortune with husband Chun In-jang, the former chairman of the company.

MONEY + POLITICS

President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he “would love to” deport American criminals to be imprisoned in El Salvador, the day after meeting with the country’s president in the Oval Office. In a Fox Noticias interview, Trump said he calls U.S. violent criminals “homegrown criminals” and that his administration is “looking into it, and we want to do it.” Experts say that there is no legal pathway to deporting a U.S.-born citizen.

TRAVEL + LIFESTYLE

While there was quite a bit of uncertainty surrounding the effect of tariffs at this year’s Watches and Wonders Geneva, a looming trade war couldn’t quash the enthusiasm for the beautiful, innovative and buzzed-about new watches on display. This year’s novelties included the first new collection from Rolex since 2012, the debut of the world’s most complicated wristwatch by Vacheron Constantin and more.

DAILY COVER STORY

Silicon Valley’s Military Drone Companies Have A Serious “Made In China” Problem

There is an open secret among Silicon Valley drone companies: The Trump Administration’s America First mandate presents a “Made In China” parts problem.

China currently controls close to 90% of the global commercial drone market, and manufactures most of the key hardware used to build them—airframes, batteries, radios, cameras, screens—according to market research firm Drone Industry Insights UG. Because of its longstanding reliance on these parts, the U.S. is years behind building the manufacturing infrastructure that could come close to rivaling China’s. And yet the country is an adversary with whom we have escalating tensions.

“We are almost completely reliant on our major adversary for them, and our ability to make them,” said Josh Steinman, who previously oversaw supply chain security at the National Security Council

The situation has set off alarm bells among military officials. Several American drone companies with Pentagon contracts—including Skydio, the largest—are scrambling to rebuild their supply chains after Chinese sanctions cut off access to suppliers. “China could shut [the drone industry] down globally for a year,” Trent Emeneker, who leads a team at the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit that approves drones for military use, told Forbes. “It’s a national security issue, not just for the United States, but for the global West.”

WHY IT MATTERS It’s the kind of stranglehold that President Donald Trump’s tariffs are seemingly designed to break, theoretically encouraging American companies to reduce their reliance on cheaper foreign supply chains and build their own at home. But doing so will take years of research and development, and significant investment. All while China’s retaliatory tariffs are set to make the components that American drone makers rely on even more expensive.

MORE Silicon Valley’s ‘Gundo’ Bros Are Building A Y Combinator For Military Tech

FACTS + COMMENTS

Americans are generally dissatisfied with President Donald Trump’s tariffs, and a majority expect to see higher prices as a result, according to polls released since his April 2 “Liberation Day” announcement:

50%: The share of respondents who disapprove of Trump’s handling of foreign trade, per a survey from The Economist/YouGov

77%: The share of respondents who expect higher prices due to tariffs

51%: The share of respondents who like Trump’s goals for tariffs, per a CBS/YouGov poll, though 63% dislike his approach

STRATEGY + SUCCESS

When the job market is tough, like we’re currently experiencing, traditional job-search advice often falls short. Focus on building meaningful connections within your network, rather than just constantly submitting applications. Consider embracing a “bridge job” or alternate work arrangements like consulting or freelance to extend the financial runway for your search.

VIDEO

QUIZ

For only the sixth time in WNBA history, Paige Bueckers was the No. 1 overall WNBA draft pick on the heels of her NCAA championship victory with the University of Connecticut Huskies a few weeks ago. All six women who’ve done so attended one of two schools, which is the other school?

A. University of South Carolina

B. UCLA

C. Stanford University

D. University of Tennessee

Check your answer.

Thanks for reading! This edition of Forbes Daily was edited by Chris Dobstaff and Caroline Howard.