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Trump’s student-loan changes are coming — but there’s an exception to the new borrowing limits

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Major student-loan changes are coming, including new caps on borrowing. Some people might not face them right away.

On July 1, the repayment changes in President Donald Trump’s “big beautiful” spending legislation will take effect. The changes include a new income-driven repayment plan, ending a program that allows graduate students to borrow the full cost of attendance, and introducing new borrowing caps for advanced degrees.

While some provisions will be phased in by 2028, others, like the new borrowing caps, will be implemented this summer. However, some borrowers may qualify for an exception.

According to Federal Student Aid, borrowers who meet the following requirements will be able to retain the loan limits that existed prior to July 1:

  • You were enrolled in a program of study as of June 30, 2026
  • You received at least one direct federal loan, or your parent received a parent PLUS loan, for that program of study prior to July 1, 2026
  • And you are enrolled at the same institution and pursuing the same credential after July 1, 2026, meaning that if you are in a bachelor’s degree program, you cannot switch to an associate degree program to maintain the loan limit exception.

Borrowers who qualify for the exception will retain it for either three academic years or the difference between the expected length of the program and the amount the borrower has already completed, whichever is shorter.

The Trump administration has said the repayment overhaul is intended to simplify a complicated repayment system and curb excessive borrowing, for example with the new caps.

Advocates and Democratic lawmakers have warned that the looming repayment changes could financially strain borrowers. In addition to the new loan limits, the Trump administration also eliminated the SAVE repayment plan, created by former President Joe Biden to give borrowers cheaper monthly payments and a shorter timeline to loan forgiveness.

In July, the 7 million borrowers enrolled in SAVE will begin learning details of their 90-day timeframe to switch to a new repayment plan and face higher monthly payments, some to the tune of hundreds of dollars more.

Have a story to share about student loans? Reach out to this reporter at asheffey@businessinsider.com.




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Alistair Barr, global tech editor of Business Insider, smiles at the camera while wearing a blue and white striped shirt.

A software CEO called me on the weekend recently with painful predictions. One is already coming true.

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On a recent weekend, I was playing with my new puppy when my phone rang. On the other end was the CEO of a major public software company with a warning: the industry was headed for painful financial reset.

I can’t say who this is because he doesn’t want to be identified, talking about sensitive topics — and he wanted to speak honestly, without the usual restrictions of his company’s public relations department. These are the times you really listen!

The topic was broadly about how AI is disrupting software and impacting the business models of companies that offer software as a service, or SaaS. I’ve covered this deeply for about a year, so this wasn’t a surprise. But one of his main messages was unexpected — and is already proving prescient.

This CEO said stock-based compensation, or SBC, is too high for SaaS companies now. Future revenue growth may not be as strong anymore, so SBC has to come down, and the financial discipline of the software industry has to improve. This year, SaaS companies will have to cut a lot of employees to adjust, he predicted.

I’ll explain this more in a second, but this reality is already beginning to play out. On Wednesday, a prominent software provider called Atlassian said it’s cutting 10% of its workforce. That followed Block’s 40% job cuts.

Both companies attributed some of these layoffs to the impact of generative AI. However, they both said they’re still hiring engineers.

“Five years from now, we’ll have more engineers working for our company than we do today,” Atlassian CEO Mike Cannon-Brooks said in October, adding, “They will be more efficient.”

So what’s really happening here? Let’s go back to the weekend call I got from that other software CEO.

The rise of cheaper software

One broad message he shared is that generative AI is making it much easier to create software. This means the supply of software is skyrocketing, so according to the law of supply and demand, the value of software is falling.

This won’t mean the death of SaaS. In fact, cheaper and more prevalent software will be a huge boon to the tech industry because more people will use it. And smart software engineers will be needed to check that all this software is still working — and to understand deeply why it’s working or not.

“Engineering is changing, and great engineers are more important than ever,” said Boris Cherny, the head of Anthropic’s Claude Code, one of the main drivers of AI software disruption.

So, what’s likely happening is that generative AI is changing how software is made and maintained, and upending how software companies charge for their offerings.

For now, this could mean slower revenue growth for software providers. And this is what brings us back to the need for more financial discipline in the sector — and to the issue of stock-based compensation, or SBC.

Engineers and other tech talent are wooed by software companies with generous chunks of equity, known as restricted stock units, or RSUs. The awards are often valued based on the market price on the day they’re granted.

That works well when stocks are rising. But software stocks have taken a beating in recent months on concern about slowing growth and the potential impact of AI.

To keep the same level of stock compensation with the same size workforce, software companies will soon have to issue millions of extra shares. That will dilute existing shareholders and cut deeply into future earnings per share, one of the main measures of any company’s financial health.

“SBC (stock-based compensation) is coming up a lot more in our investor conversations,” Raimo Lenshow, a software analyst at Barclays, wrote in a recent research note.

He assessed software company valuations after the recent SaaS swoon in the market. Stocks looked more compelling, until he included SBC in the analysis.

“Adjusting for the large levels of stock-based compensation, the situation looks less rosy,” he warned.

So what can software companies do to address investor concerns about this? One solution is to cut jobs. That immediately reduces stock-based compensation costs, because companies don’t need to issue more new stock to those folks being let go (and future vesting ends for these people, too). This improves earnings, based on old-school GAAP measures — which is where investors like to go during times of stress in the tech industry.

This was a big driver of Atlassian’s job cuts this week, according to William Blair analysts.

“For Atlassian, it is important to moderate SBC lower as it has one of the highest levels of stock comp in the industry,” they wrote in a research note. “This has recently become a louder conversation as tech investors look for more profits from scaled businesses.”

This happened in 2022 as well, and Business Insider covered it a lot. Back then, the tech industry was coming down hard from a pandemic-era hiring binge. Growth was slowing and SBC looked completely unsustainable. Brutal financial discipline ensued and thousands of tech workers lost their jobs.

We’re in a similar moment now, according to that CEO who called me on the weekend. Before he got off the phone, he said financial discipline has to improve.

Sign up for BI’s Tech Memo newsletter here. Reach out to me via email at abarr@businessinsider.com.




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Dan DeFrancesco

Oil surged past $100 before coming back to Earth. Wall Street is bracing for what comes next.

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Stocks emerged unscathed from a wild day in the oil markets. Can it last?

The price of oil eclipsed the all-important $100-a-barrel benchmark, and everyone got really nervous. (Here’s a roundup of what a bunch of smart people said.)

But G7 countries pledged to release strategic oil reserves if needed, easing oil prices. President Donald Trump’s insistence the war is “very complete” was another boost. By market close, major indexes actually finished the day in the green as oil prices dropped.

At least, for now.

Wall Street vet Ed Yardeni, who is typically bullish, raised the chances of a stock meltdown from 20% to 35%. He also mentioned the dreaded s-word — stagflation — in a nod to the 1970s oil crisis that gave investors headaches.

Others are less fearful. Pantheon Macroeconomics said in a note to clients on Monday that fears over oil prices spiking inflation are overblown. The reason? The US labor market is too weak to support large price spikes.

“Higher inflation expectations will be meaningless if employers still hold the cards in wage setting and their customers retrench,” wrote Samuel Tombs, Pantheon’s chief US economist.

Energy economist Daniel Yergin is also taking an optimistic view. He believes the global economy is more resilient than we’re giving it credit for.

Ultimately, what matters most is how long this oil crisis lasts.

An extended closure of the Strait of Hormuz will be a lot harder for the markets and economy to shake off than just a one-off price spike.

“While market and survey-based inflation expectations can be sensitive to oil at high frequency, history suggests only marked and persistent spikes in the price of crude trigger persistent inflationary cycles,” BofA analysts wrote.

That’s not stopping some people from preparing for the worst.

Governments are offering suggestions to help people mitigate the impact of oil price spikes, from cutting out non-essential travel to offering more flexible work.

As useful as some of that advice might be, it’s not always actionable for Americans. With so many US cities suffering from subpar public transportation, avoiding the gas pump won’t be easy.




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Lloyd Lee

These robots are coming for the jobs no one wants — and could fill workforce gaps

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Backflipping robots make for splashy demos and viral videos, but Agility Robotics sees humanoid bots doing something simpler — solving an urgent global labor issue inside manufacturing plants.

The Oregon-based startup has so far deployed its humanoid robot, Digit, at Amazon, Schaeffler Group, and GXO, a logistics company. The startup announced in February that a few Digit robots would be deployed in Toyota’s massive manufacturing plant in Canada, marking yet another automaker betting on bipedal bots.

Daniel Diez, Agility’s chief business officer, told Business Insider that there’s a common thread at the companies he visits around the world. In Germany, Korea, Japan, or the US, manufacturers just don’t have enough people who want to work mundane, repetitive jobs.


Headshot of Daniel Diez, chief business officer of Agility Robotics

Daniel Diez, Agility Robotics’ chief business officer, said there’s a labor gap in manufacturing that will require automation.

Courtesy Agility Robotics



“It’s the same exact issue: Labor gaps in these highly repetitive physical tasks,” Diez said. “They simply can’t find the people to do this work.”

There is no shortage of manufacturing roles. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are more than 400,000 job openings in the sector in the US as of December 2025.

In addition to vacancies, talent retention remains a top concern for manufacturers, according to a 2024 survey of more than 200 companies conducted by The Manufacturing Institute and Deloitte.

Diez said there are “compounding effects” to the so-called labor gap.

A significant share of the manufacturing workforce is 55 and over, he said, meaning they’re approaching retirement. BLS’s Current Population Survey clocks the number at a little over 25%.

Add to that the Trump Administration’s push to bring onshore manufacturing back, which Diez said will only create more jobs and a greater need for automation.

“This re-shoring of manufacturing in the US is going to only occur through a combination of human employment and automation technology, like humans and robotics,” he said.

Automakers are notably bracing for this shifting tide. Tesla, Volkswagen, Ford, Mercedes-Benz, and Hyundai, among others, have made significant investments in humanoid robots with the prospect that they’ll work the assembly lines in the near future.


A humanoid robot stands

Atlas, Boston Dynamics’ humanoid robot, will be deployed in Hyundai’s factory in 2028.

Lloyd Lee/BI



Boston Dynamics in January unveiled a new iteration of Atlas, an all-electric humanoid, that the startup aims to deploy in Hyundai’s Georgia factory in a few years.

The company’s former CEO, Robert Playter, previously told Business Insider that Boston Dynamics is helping companies brace for population decline and increased manufacturing demand.

At Toyota Motor’s manufacturing plant in Ontario, the automaker is starting with three Digit bots that will do the simple task of moving totes, or plastic containers, from one spot to another.


Digit robot moves a tub

Courtesy Agility Robotics



There are robots out there that could execute much more complex tasks, while some industry insiders say humanoids, or bots with two legs and arms, are still years away from scaling. Part of the pitch for the bipedal form factor is easier integration into existing or older factories, Diez said.

“At this moment in time, it feels like an ideal solution for brownfield facilities,” he said, referring to underutilized industrial facilities that tend to have a baked-in layout. In other words, with humanoids, manufacturers can automate their properties without making significant changes to the factory layout and workflow.

Diez said that any industry with highly repetitive tasks is ripe for the adoption of humanoid robots. The industries Agility Robotics is seeing with the most “inbound” requests are coming from warehouse logistics, e-commerce fulfillment, automotive, and pharmaceutical manufacturing, he said.

“We’re not having to convince people that this is a technology need,” Diez said. “We have more than enough hand-raisers who are coming to us.”




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Fighting with Iran has spread to tankers at sea. Ships are coming under fire around the busy Strait of Hormuz.

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Deadly fighting in the Middle East has spread to tankers around the strategic Strait of Hormuz, with multiple ships coming under fire on Sunday, opening up a new front in the conflict.

The Palau-flagged oil tanker Skylight (IMO 9330020) was “targeted” a few miles north of the Khasab port in Oman, the country’s Maritime Security Center said, adding that the 20-person crew was evacuated. At least four people were injured.

An official with Operation Aspides, the European Union’s counter-Houthi mission, told Business Insider that Omani authorities carried out the rescue operations.

The US Treasury Department sanctioned Skylight and more than two dozen other “shadow fleet vessels” in December for illegally moving Iranian oil.

No one claimed responsibility for the attack, but the Gulf Cooperation Council said it condemned the “brutal Iranian attacks” targeting the Duqm port in Oman and “an oil tanker off its coast.”

The incident marked the first time that a ship had come under fire since the US and Israel began a strike campaign against Iran on Saturday morning. Tehran has retaliated by launching missiles and drones across the Middle East.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, an element of the Royal Navy, has reported at least two additional attacks off the coast of Oman. Two vessels were struck by an “unknown projectile,” it said.


A cargo ship is pictured off the coast of the city of Fujairah, in the Strait of Hormuz in the northern Emirate on February 25, 2026.

Multiple ships came under attack near the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday.

Photo by Giuseppe CACACE/AFP via Getty Images



Iran has a history of carrying out attacks against ships near the Strait of Hormuz, including with its Shahed one-way attack drones, which have gained notoriety as Russia uses them extensively in Ukraine. Its proxies have also attacked commercial vessels.

The incidents underscore the new risk to shipping near the Strait of Hormuz. The narrow body of water between Iran and Oman is one of the world’s most important global trade routes, with about 20% of the world’s daily oil supply passing through it.

On Saturday, an Operation Aspides official said that ships had received radio transmissions from the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) stating that vessels were barred from entering the Strait of Hormuz.

However, the UKMTO said on Sunday that “no official closure of the Strait of Hormuz has been formally communicated to the maritime industry through recognized maritime safety channels.”

It said that the maritime safety situation in the region remained “highly volatile,” with the ongoing fighting creating an “elevated threat to commercial shipping.” Britain warned that vessels could face military miscalculation and electronic interference.

Some vessels are avoiding the Straight of Hormuz, with international shipping companies suspending transits until further notice. Marine traffic trackers showed a significant drop in traffic through the strait after the US and Israeli strikes began on Saturday.

Iran previously threatened to shut the Strait of Hormuz in retaliation for any attacks or moves it deemed hostile by the US. A full blockade, or even a sufficiently dangerous environment to deter enough ships from traveling through, could send oil prices soaring.

Israel and Iran continued to trade strikes into Sunday. Retaliatory fire from Tehran has targeted more than half a dozen other Middle East countries, including bases hosting US troops across the region.




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