Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” is reshaping the corporate tax and investment landscape. CFOs must navigate new wins for private equity and fossil fuels—while preparing for tougher terrain in renewables, AI, and healthcare. This breakdown shows which sectors are buoyed, which are squeezed, and where the risks now lie.
Donald Trump’s so-called “big beautiful bill,” pushed through Congress in early July, has triggered sweeping tax and spending changes with far-reaching implications for corporate America.
For financial teams, it represents a complex landscape of benefits and setbacks, demanding a reassessment of priorities, risk exposure, and long-term investment strategies.
The legislation extends corporate tax cuts first introduced during Trump’s 2017 presidency. But beyond that headline, the bill serves up a patchwork of industry-specific shifts, favoring private capital and defense while scaling back on clean energy and tech incentives.
It passed by the narrowest of margins after a flurry of last-minute revisions stripped out some of the more controversial proposals.
Few sectors fared better than private equity. Despite prior promises from Trump to close the carried interest loophole, the final bill left it untouched.
The mechanism allows general partners in investment firms to pay capital gains tax—rather than higher income tax rates—on profits from managing investors’ money.
“That carveout alone is worth billions to the industry,” said Michael Pedroni, a former Treasury official now at Highland Global Advisors.
Provisions also expand interest deductibility to include depreciation and amortization, lowering effective tax rates for many PE-backed companies.
At the same time, a proposed “revenge tax” on investors from jurisdictions deemed unfriendly to the U.S. was quietly dropped.
The measure had threatened to drive up tax bills for U.S.-based asset managers with overseas limited partners.
While some hoped for additional relief—particularly tax credits for private credit funds—the final bill omitted these, leaving that growing segment of the market without the regulatory sweetener it had lobbied for.
Retailers had reason to watch the bill closely. A controversial cut to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is projected to reduce spending by $9 billion next year.
That translates into a minor dip in grocery and beverage sales, according to Morgan Stanley, with brands like Conagra and Kraft Heinz likely to see the most direct impact.
For smaller grocers, however, the change could be more than a rounding error.
“Stable SNAP benefits are what make it possible to keep stores open in underserved communities,” said Stephanie Johnson of the National Grocers Association.
At the same time, restaurants stand to benefit from a $25,000 tax deduction for tipped wages. And in a shift likely to please many U.S.-based retailers, the bill phases out tariff exemptions on small imported packages—closing a loophole that online platforms such as Temu and Shein had exploited to undercut domestic prices.
The fossil fuel sector scored notable wins, while renewable energy faced meaningful setbacks. A surprise late-stage provision allows metallurgical coal producers to reclaim 2.5% of costs against tax liabilities through 2029.
Trump officials cast the move as essential to domestic steel production and manufacturing competitiveness.
By contrast, clean-energy incentives from the Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act were rolled back.
Tax credits for solar panels and heat pumps will be phased out after 2025, and incentives for electric vehicles are set to expire in September.
The result is a policy reversal that could strain the business models of solar contractors and battery makers, some of whom rely heavily on tax subsidies.
Geothermal, hydropower, and nuclear retained their credits, suggesting a more surgical approach to clean-energy support—but the message is clear: fossil fuels are back in favor.
The legislation dealt a blow to artificial intelligence companies, after the Senate rejected a proposed 10-year moratorium on state-level AI regulation.
This opens the door for a fragmented regulatory landscape, with New York already set to require public safety reports from AI developers.
For firms like OpenAI, Anthropic, and their backers—including Microsoft, Google, and Meta—this signals increased compliance burdens at the state level.
Tesla also finds itself in a weaker position. The rollback of EV tax credits and emissions trading perks affects multiple parts of its business—from car sales to solar installations to supercharger networks.
Battery manufacturers may retain support through 2033, but only if they meet higher domestic content thresholds, which industry experts say could prove difficult.
Cuts to Medicaid, once expected to be sweeping, were scaled back during negotiations. The outcome was sufficient to buoy hospital stocks, with Tenet and HCA Healthcare reaching new highs.
Yet analysts warn that smaller hospitals could feel the squeeze from reduced reimbursements.
Meanwhile, the defense sector emerged as one of the biggest winners.
An additional $150 billion has been allocated to the Pentagon, including $28 billion for shipbuilding and $23 billion for a new missile defense initiative dubbed the “Golden Dome.”
Contractors like Lockheed Martin, RTX, and General Dynamics are well positioned, as are dual-use tech firms such as Palantir and Anduril.
Universities with large endowments—those exceeding $2 million per student—will face a new investment earnings tax of up to 8%. Harvard, for example, could pay an estimated $267 million annually.
While only a handful of institutions are affected, the broader implications could trickle down via tighter state funding, especially as cuts to healthcare and nutrition support squeeze state budgets.
On the flip side, space companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin won a boost with provisions allowing spaceport infrastructure to qualify for municipal bond financing—opening up a new frontier for public-private partnerships.
For finance leaders, the “big beautiful bill” isn’t just a political artifact—it’s a call to reassess tax planning, investment allocation, and regulatory risk exposure.
With carveouts preserved for private capital, incentives slashed for clean tech, and looming AI compliance challenges, the bill redraws the contours of fiscal strategy.
CFOs should be alert to: