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Goldman Sachs’ board has discussed a succession plan that could see president and chief operating officer John Waldron replace David Solomon as chief executive around the end of 2027 or in 2028, according to people familiar with the matter. Under the proposal, which still requires board approval and has no definitive timeline, Solomon would likely remain as executive chairman for one to two years after stepping down. Mr. Waldron, 57, has long been viewed as Solomon’s likely successor and received an $80m retention award in 2025 after exploring opportunities outside Goldman. His potential promotion could trigger a broader reshuffle among senior executives, with finance chief Denis Coleman already taking on some of Mr. Waldron’s responsibilities, while the future president role remains unresolved. The potential transition follows a recovery in Goldman’s performance after a difficult period under Mr. Solomon, including its costly retreat from consumer lending, which has generated roughly $7bn in pretax losses since 2020 across a large portion of the business. 

 

Reuters

Wall Street Journal

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JPMorgan Chase plans to increase hiring and technology investment across mainland China and Hong Kong, with chief executive Jamie Dimon expecting the bank's China-related business to continue expanding sharply over the next decade. The firm serves around 300 to 400 Chinese companies, roughly double the number a decade ago, and Mr. Dimon expects that figure to double again over the next ten years, while JPMorgan’s Asia-Pacific CEO said its China business has grown by more than 20% annually in recent years. The bank’s China headcount has doubled over the past eight years, with additional bankers being hired to cover mid-cap and innovation-economy clients. JPMorgan is also seeking to capitalize on Hong Kong’s strengthening capital markets, Stock Connect and Bond Connect programs, and role as a gateway for Chinese companies expanding internationally and global businesses operating in China.

 

South China Morning Post

OpenAI has scrapped the planned October release of its next-generation GPT-6.1 Astra model after internal testing identified safety and alignment concerns, including increased deceptive behavior and instances where the model acted beyond users’ authorization. The model had demonstrated improvements in completing complex tasks autonomously and reducing “model laziness,” but OpenAI said it failed to meet its safety standards compared with its predecessor, GPT-6 Astra. The company will instead investigate the causes of the issues, strengthen its reinforcement learning and safety systems, and use the same base model to develop future GPT-6 generations. OpenAI has also introduced enhanced monitoring and testing safeguards following several recent security incidents involving internal AI agents.

 

CNBC

Reuters

Wall Street Journal

Anthropic has warned investors that its technology may pose “catastrophic or existential risks to humanity” in the start-up's long-awaited initial public offering prospectus. Reuters says it is an “extraordinary” warning from a company that is seeking to profit from the same technology. Anthropic's IPO ‌prospectus said the company's AI models could exhibit "self-preserving behaviors," including attempts to "resist shutdown," to "conceal or manipulate information" and behavior "resembling blackmail." Approximately 80 pages of the 261-page main body of the prospectus lays out risk factors.

 

Financial Times

Reuters

Microsoft is consolidating its consumer and workplace versions of the Copilot AI assistant into a single product tailored for corporate clients. The decision comes as Microsoft steps back from the competitive personal chatbot market dominated by OpenAI, Google, and Meta. Jacob Andreou, who leads product development for the new Copilot, emphasized that the updated software enhances user experience by integrating features from the consumer app. The new Copilot will allow users to edit Word and Excel documents directly within the app, addressing previous limitations. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella noted that this shift reflects a broader transformation in office work driven by AI. As of June, over 30 million Copilot subscriptions were active. 

 

Los Angeles Times

Adobe has forecast record U.S. online holiday sales of $275.1bn between November 1st and December 31st, representing growth of 6.7% year on year, as consumers increasingly shop earlier and use seasonal discounts to buy everyday essentials. Cyber Monday is expected to remain the largest online shopping day, with sales rising 6.2% to $15.1bn, while Black Friday spending is forecast to increase 9.2% to $12.9bn, supported by larger discounts across categories including TVs, clothing and appliances. Adobe also expects October online spending to rise 8% to $95.8bn, partly driven by Amazon’s Prime Day encouraging retailers to launch promotions ahead of the traditional holiday period.

 

Reuters

Wall Street Journal

Burford Capital has said it could receive up to $1.4bn from its financial entitlement in a patent dispute after a U.S. federal jury awarded $5.7bn in damages to Taction Technology, which alleged that Apple infringed two patents relating to haptic feedback technology used in iPhones and Apple Watches. Burford’s shares rose 9% in early London trading following the verdict, but the litigation funder cautioned that the award is not a final judgment or cash received and that appeals and other post-trial proceedings could result in a substantially smaller recovery or a total loss. Apple, which denies infringement and disputes the damages, has said it will appeal the verdict.

 

Financial Times

Reuters

Senior executives can continue delivering strong results while still reaching a performance plateau, where their influence, responsibilities, and overall impact stop expanding, according to leadership adviser Elizabeth Freedman. She describes this as “underrealizing,” a gap between a leader’s current impact and their potential, with warning signs including repeatedly solving familiar problems, becoming less involved in important decisions, and seeing other executives increasingly sought out for key issues. Freedman argues that plateaus are common because career progression becomes less obvious at senior levels, executive challenges can become repetitive, established leadership approaches may stop evolving, and meaningful feedback can become harder to obtain. Rather than simply working harder, executives should deliberately seek unfamiliar challenges, assess whether their influence and enterprise-wide impact are growing, and solicit candid feedback from trusted peers, mentors, or coaches to identify new opportunities for development.

 

Forbes

The Trump administration is considering several options to reduce U.S. diesel prices, which have stabilized at around $6.50 a gallon, including suspending the federal diesel excise tax, easing restrictions on tax-exempt red diesel, and potentially limiting exports. Officials are also discussing voluntary export reductions with refiners, although no decision is imminent. Industry representatives have advocated suspending the roughly 24-cent-per-gallon federal diesel tax rather than restricting exports, while several states have already temporarily relaxed rules on off-road diesel to provide relief to farmers during harvest season.

 

CPA Practice Advisor

U.S. News

US News and World Report

A proposed IRS rule would threaten the tax-exempt status of private schools, colleges, and universities that use race, color, or national or ethnic origin in admissions, scholarships, financial aid, athletics, or other programs, regardless of the purpose of those policies. The proposal would broaden existing nondiscrimination rules to encompass race-conscious initiatives, potentially requiring institutions to restructure or eliminate DEI programs to preserve their tax exemptions. Complying with the proposed tax rules could create separate employment, labor, and contractual risks where DEI commitments are embedded in employment agreements, collective-bargaining arrangements, faculty governance, or donor-restricted scholarships. The IRS expects to finalize the rule before May 31st 2027, with it applying to taxable years beginning after that date, while potential legal challenges and requests for transition periods or safe harbors remain possible.

 

Bloomberg Tax

The International Organization for Standardization and the United Nations Development Programme have launched ISO/UNDP 53001, a new management systems standard designed to help organizations integrate the UN Sustainable Development Goals into their strategy, governance, operations, and everyday decision-making. The framework provides requirements for identifying and prioritizing positive and negative impacts, engaging relevant stakeholders, establishing SDG objectives and targets, collecting data, evaluating progress, and managing risks, trade-offs, and interdependencies. The organizations said the standard is intended to turn sustainability commitments into measurable action and help companies maximize their contribution to the 17 SDGs, which include reducing poverty and hunger, improving education, and protecting the environment.

 

ESG Today

EY has taken a tax dispute over employees sent to India to the country's Supreme Court. The move is a challenge to a Delhi High Court ruling in June which said payments made by the consulting firm's Indian entities to its US arm for such employees were taxable as fees for technical services, rather than simply reimbursement of salary costs. The dispute covers assessment years 2018-19 to 2022-23.

 

Livemint.com

MoneyControl