Google may cut ties with Scale AI
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Welcome to Seeking Alpha's Wall Street Breakfast, where we cover the top news for investors every morning. It's great to have you here on this Monday, June 16th. I'm Julie Morgan. Big tech shuffles AI ties, investors tighten the corset at Victoria's Secret, and Southwest upgrades safety for the cockpit.

Google is reportedly planning to part ways with Scale AI following an announcement that Meta Platforms is taking a 49% stake in the startup. Reuters reported, citing people with knowledge of the matter, that Google had planned to pay Scale AI around $200 million this year for the human-labeled training data which is vital for developing technology, including the AI models behind its chatbot, Gemini.

If you remember, we told you last week that Meta announced a $14.3 billion investment in Scale, acquiring a 49% stake and valuing the San Francisco-based company at over $29 billion. A key aspect of the deal includes the CEO of Scale to join Meta to head its superintelligence team focused on artificial general intelligence.

Other major technology companies, which are customers of scale, including Microsoft, are also backing away. XAI is also looking to exit, according to the report.

Companies that compete with Meta in developing AI models are worried that doing business with scale could reveal their research priorities. Seeking Alpha reached out to Scale, Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI, but they did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Victoria's Secret is facing more shareholder pressure to overhaul its board and boost its stock performance. The Wall Street Journal reported that Barrington Capital Group, which owns an over 1% stake in Victoria's Secret and plans to buy more shares, believes that the company's current management, including its CEO, lacked the strategic clarity to drive a turnaround.

Barrington is planning to ask the company to consider replacing a majority of its board with new independent directors and refocus on its core bra business to boost stock performance. It also sees opportunities to unlock value in VSCO's beauty business, which alone may be worth about as much as the company's current market value. A Victoria's Secret spokesperson said the company had not heard from Barrington yet, but is looking forward to engaging with the investor.

The lingerie retailer is already facing pressure from one of its largest shareholders, BBRC International, which has accused it of continued mismanagement. BBRC also called out the recent cybersecurity incident at Victoria's Secret, which it said may have been preventable with proper precautions.

Southwest Airlines is adding software for cockpit alerts designed by Honeywell to its entire Boeing 737 fleet to increase runway safety. The smart runway and smart landing software notifies pilots when they move too fast, fly too high, or if they're going towards the wrong runway.

To date, more than 700 Southwest aircraft have been activated with the software. It's certified for most Airbus and Boeing planes, as well as several business aviation platforms. Honeywell's next-generation runway safety technology called Surface Alerts, or SURF-A, is currently being tested and is expected to be certified on commercial aircraft in 2026.

Surfei uses GPS data, automatic dependent surveillance broadcast equipment, and advanced analytics to provide pilots with direct alerts of potential runway traffic. Now for a look at a few other articles that are trending on Seeking Alpha. This first one has 111 comments thus far. It's entitled, What are stablecoins? The U.S. is reportedly pushing Vietnam to reduce reliance on Chinese tech.

And Japan, Europe, and China tip to outperform U.S. stocks over the next decade. On our Catalyst Watch for the Day, Amazon will hold its AWS Reinforce Conference in Philadelphia. The three-day event will provide the latest insights into securing workloads on AWS, including a keynote address from AWS Chief Information Security Officer. Shares of Amazon have rallied following the event in the past.

The Paris Air Show will begin. The event will present an opportunity for aerospace companies to unveil new technologies, announce strategic orders, and reshape investor sentiment. Boeing, Airbus, Embraer, Honeywell, Eve Holdings, and GE Aerospace are some of the companies participating.

And the three-day Marine Money Week event will begin in New York City. The event is widely regarded as the largest annual gathering of the most active dealmakers in global ship finance.

On Wall Street at this early hour, Dow, S&P and Nasdaq futures are in the green. Crude oil is down 0.4% at $72 a barrel. Bitcoin is up 1.5% at $107,000. Gold is down 0.5% at $3,414. The FTSE 100 is up 0.4% and the DAX is up 0.3%.

Echo Star is on our list of the biggest movers of the day pre-market. SATS is up 52% on reports that President Trump intervened to help resolve tensions between the FCC and Echo Star over its Spectrum licenses. On today's economic calendar, at 10 a.m. wholesale inventories and at 11 a.m. the Treasury buyback announcement. ♪

That's it for today's Wall Street Breakfast. Thanks for listening. To take full advantage of Seeking Alpha with coverage on significant stocks and ETFs, become a premium subscriber. Check out seekingalpha.com slash subscriptions. I'm your host, Julie Morgan. Go out and make it a great day.