Opinion
The financing model for AI data centers remains based on traditional real estate logic, but asset value and debt repayment capacity are now deeply dependent on operational continuity. Power outages, SLA penalties, and technological obsolescence are becoming new credit variables, urgently requiring the reconstruction of underwriting frameworks through financial engineering.
In M&A transactions, budgets for transaction advisory fees are precise, but the integration budget for the first year after closing is often overlooked, creating an "integration investment gap." This article analyzes its causes and costs, proposes the integration investment ratio as an anchoring metric, and recommends that CFOs set the budget at transaction approval, designate a responsible person, implement weekly leading indicator reporting, and disclose investment adequacy to the board.
Artificial intelligence has elevated disinformation from a reputational concern to a major global financial and enterprise risk. Gartner's 1Q26 Emerging Risks Report shows that information integrity is the top emerging risk facing public and private sectors, but fewer than half of executives have established response mechanisms. Leveraging their responsibilities for business resilience and compliance, CFOs need to coordinate the C-suite to assess gaps and invest in a unified disinformation security system. The article outlines the three core elements of disinformation security, investment evaluation methods, execution levers, and pitfalls to avoid.
R&D tax credits are intended to incentivize corporate innovation, yet many CFOs choose to forgo them due to high consulting fees from Big Four accounting firms, IRS compliance burdens, and concerns over audit risks. Through the lens of a former IRS engineer, the article dissects three major barriers—structural design, IRS friction, and organizational perception—and contrasts them with the positive experience of startup BadVR, pointing out that cognitive bias may limit the policy's effectiveness more than the facts themselves.
The disconnect between cybersecurity and the finance function is not just an operational issue but a balance sheet issue. This article explores how CFOs and CISOs manage the same enterprise risk in different languages and suggests that the key to bridging the gap lies in translating technical risk into business impact.
On February 20, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not authorize the President to impose tariffs and invalidated the related tariffs. CBP has initiated the first phase of refunds, involving 330,000 importers and $166 billion. This article discusses the tax implications of refunds, planning for various parties, and the future legal framework for tariffs.
As the global business focus shifts from AI experimentation to evaluating return on investment, the accounting and legal industries, rooted in hourly billing, are facing a unique valuation dilemma. Elizabeth Beastrom, president of Thomson Reuters' Tax, Audit, and Accounting Professionals group, writes that the traditional technology value formula centered on efficiency gains and cost savings structurally conflicts with the hourly billing business model. Although AI has been widely adopted in the industry, only 19% of tax firms and 15% of law firms are currently collecting AI ROI metrics. The article calls on the industry to shift from focusing on internal transactional statistics to measuring "value per hour," a new value assessment system oriented toward client outcomes.
Despite the surge in corporate AI investments, most organizations still struggle to achieve measurable financial returns. The core issue is that AI deployment has not been accompanied by a reshaping of operational models. This article proposes positioning AI through the metaphor of a "digital intern," emphasizing human-machine collaboration and financial anchoring, and offers four practical pathways.
North American trade exceeds $1.5 trillion, yet cross-border financial infrastructure remains fragmented across the three countries. Drawing on the historical experience of building the U.S. Interstate Highway System, this article argues that CFOs should demand truly integrated cross-border cash, payment, and liquidity management solutions from banks, rather than settling for "innovation theater" that merely optimizes interfaces.
DualEntry tested 19 mainstream AI models on 101 real-world accounting workflows. Results showed that the best model, Claude Opus 4.7, achieved 79.2% accuracy, GPT-5.4 reached 77.3%, and GPT-4 scored only 39.8%. Despite significant improvements in model capabilities, the best model still made errors on about one-fifth of tasks, especially in critical operational areas like bank reconciliation and month-end closing. The author urges CFOs to focus on task-level accuracy rather than overall scores, and to emphasize human review and system controls over AI outputs.