Each spring, cohorts of NYU Stern students will compete to build AI-native business solutions, with annual prize pools exceeding $100,000 up for grabs.
The competition, called The Teper Innovation Challenge, will feature distinct tracks for both undergraduate and MBA students, with the first round scheduled to begin in the spring 2027 semester.
Behind the initiative are Stern alumni Jeff Teper (NASDAQ: MSFT), Executive Vice President for Apps and Agents at Microsoft, and his wife Alexandra “Sandy” Teper, who together donated $5 million to their alma mater.
Jeff graduated from Stern in 1986, while Sandy earned her degree a year earlier in 1985, and the two met as students at the Greenwich Village school before building parallel careers in technology.
At Microsoft, Jeff is credited with scaling SharePoint from its early days into a billion-dollar enterprise product and has since guided teams through successive waves of cloud computing and artificial intelligence adoption.
The $5 million commitment goes beyond the competition itself, with a portion earmarked to expand student access to frontier technology tools and support the deeper integration of advanced AI into Stern’s broader academic curriculum.
NYU Stern Dean Bharat Anand credited the couple’s long-standing connection to the school, saying they have “always made time for Stern” even while breaking new ground in technology and business throughout their careers.
Anand added that “advances in AI are making it easier than ever for anyone to turn ideas into something tangible,” framing the challenge as an extension of the experiential learning philosophy central to Stern’s identity.
In a joint statement, Sandy and Jeff pointed to the scale of the current moment, noting: “Now with the even larger artificial intelligence transformation, we are thrilled to support Stern students as they explore, collaborate, and create opportunities in this next wave of technology and the economy.”
Jeff’s relationship with Stern predates this gift by several years, having joined the school’s Tech Board as part of its inaugural cohort of industry leaders, a body established alongside the launch of the Andre Koo Tech MBA program.
He has also hosted Stern students at Microsoft’s Seattle campus, sponsored experiential learning projects in New York City, and advised faculty who developed what the school describes as one of the first agentic AI courses offered at a major business school.
The Teper Innovation Challenge is set to formally launch in the coming weeks, positioning Stern to compete for recognition as a leading incubator of AI-literate business talent ahead of a crowded field of peer institutions.
