Meta offering $100M bonus to poach OpenAI talent?
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Welcome to Seeking Alpha's Wall Street Breakfast, where we cover the top news for investors every morning. Good morning. Today is Wednesday, June 18th, and I'm your host, Kim Kahn, filling in for Julie Morgan. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says that Meta Platforms made offers of up to $100 million in signing bonuses to OpenAI employees to poach top AI talent.

Speaking on a podcast hosted by his brother Jack Altman, Sam Altman also said that Meta's efforts haven't really worked. They started making like these giant offers to, you know, a lot of people on our team, like $100 million signing bonuses, more than that comp per year. Sam Altman said, I'm really happy that at least so far, none of our best people have decided to take them up on that.

I think that people sort of look at the two paths and say, alright, OpenAI has got a really good shot, a much better shot at actually delivering on superintelligence, and also may eventually be the more valuable company, he said. Altman noted that, so far, none of OpenAI's best people have chosen to accept Meta's offers, criticizing the tech giant's approach to hiring. I think the strategy of a ton of upfront guaranteed comp, and that being the reason you tell someone to join, I don't think that's going to set up a great culture."

The Senate has passed legislation that would create a regulatory framework for stablecoins in a move that is seen as bolstering the legitimacy of the cryptocurrency industry. The Genius Act passed the Senate 68-30 with bipartisan support. It will now move to the House for potential revisions, and if approved, will head to President Donald Trump's desk. The White House wants the bill passed before August.

Tennessee GOP Senator Bill Hagerty, the bill's sponsor, said, Projections show that with the passage of the Genius Act, stablecoin issuers could become the world's largest holders of U.S. treasuries by 2030, he added.

The bill establishes guardrails for stablecoins, including full reserve backing by U.S. dollars and treasury bills, monthly audits, and consumer protections. Several Democrats opposed the bill due to concerns over Trump's personal crypto projects, with Senator Elizabeth Warren warning that the legislation would create a superhighway for Trump corruption.

And traders are saying, watch the pizzas. A social media account tracking pizza orders around the U.S. Pentagon has been thrust into the spotlight since last week, bringing attention to a popular online theory and urban legend that the volume of pizza orders is linked to global crises. The Pentagon Pizza Report Twitter account describes itself as an open-source tracker of pizza spot activity around the Pentagon. The account has 128,000 followers.

The account said on June 12th, "As of 6:59 p.m. Eastern Time, nearly all pizza establishments nearby the Pentagon have experienced a huge surge in activity." A couple of hours later, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced preemptive strikes against nuclear sites and military targets in Iran. The theory is simple: before or during a global crisis, Pentagon officials have to work late into the night and pizza orders spike.

The theory became popular back in 1990 when Time magazine reported that delivery people at various Domino's Pizza outlets around the Pentagon claimed that an upsurge in orders meant something big was brewing. "We know, absolutely. Pentagon orders doubled up the night before the Panama attack. Same thing happened before the Grenada invasion," Time quoted a delivery man as saying. "Bottom line for journalists: always monitor the pizza," CNN's Wolf Blitzer said in 1991 when he was covering the Pentagon.

Here's what's trending on Seeking Alpha. Hexagon is launching a new humanoid robot powered by NVIDIA Tech. And take a look at Minimax, the new Chinese AI tiger that's making waves. And Elon Musk's ex is suing New York over a law requiring disclosure of hate speech policies. Now let's turn to the markets. It's Fed Day today, but one of those rare ones where outside events could overtake market sentiment.

With every economist polled predicting no move on rates, events in the Middle East could dictate direction. UBS chief economist Paul Donovan says, Trump's social media posts have suggested increased hostility towards Iran, raising the possibility of the U.S. striking, presumably, Iranian nuclear facilities. Markets are still inclined to view this as a local conflict with limited global economic consequences. Crude oil is slightly lower this morning after shooting up 4% in the previous session.

As is typical on Fed days, stock and bond trading is cautious. Stock index futures are slightly higher, with Nasdaq 100 futures in the lead. The 10-year yield is up slightly to 4.4%. The Fed decision hits at 2 p.m. ET, with Chairman Jay Powell stepping up to the lectern at 2.30. ING says, with no move baked in, more focus will thus be on the Fed's updated projections and whether they will still show, for instance, the median expectation of two 25-basis point cuts this year.

There is indeed a good chance that the median could shift to showing just one cut, as it would take just two FOMC members to change their view from two cuts to one.

The market is close to fully discounting two cuts this year, with September as the likely date for the next cut. Another 50 basis points of cuts are discounted over the course of next year. Whether the market will react much and lastingly to such a shift in the Fed's so-called dot plot is doubtful. The current backdrop is just too uncertain, and the Fed could quickly shift its view on changing circumstances and or data, they added.

Also on today's economic calendar, at 8.30, housing starts and permits and jobless claims arrive. At 10.30, we get EIA petroleum inventories. There will be a special Fed-focused Wall Street breakfast on Thursday, June 19th. The markets will be closed that day for the Juneteenth holiday. That's all for today's Wall Street breakfast.

Look for links for stories in the show notes section. Don't forget, these episodes will be up with transcriptions at seekingalpha.com slash WSB. And for a full suite of news, analysis, ratings, and data on stocks and ETFs, go to seekingalpha.com slash subscriptions.