Wall Street Breakfast Podcast: OpenAI Rejects Robinhood

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Robinhood (HOOD) ticks lower as OpenAI rejects tokenized equity tokens. (00:20) Alpha and Omega (AOSL) to pay $4.25M to settle with US over export control practices. (01:44) TripAdvisor (TRIP) stock gains after WSJ report of Starboard taking over 9% stake. (02:48)

This is an abridged transcript.

OpenAI issued a firm statement Wednesday denying any affiliation with the tokenized equity tokens offered by trading platform Robinhood.

OpenAI emphasized that the tokens do not represent real ownership or equity in the company.

The trading platform began offering tokenized shares of OpenAI and SpaceX (SPACE) to its users in Europe.

“These ‘OpenAI tokens’ are not OpenAI equity,” OpenAI wrote on X. “We did not partner with Robinhood, were not involved in this, and do not endorse it.”

The company said that “any transfer of OpenAI equity requires our approval — we did not approve any transfer,” and warned users to “please be careful.”

In response to OpenAI’s post, a Robinhood (HOOD) spokesperson said, “These tokens give retail investors indirect exposure to private markets, opening up access, and are enabled by Robinhood’s ownership stake in a special purpose vehicle.”

Robinhood gained 6.1% on Wednesday and is down 1.5% in premarket trading.

Alpha and Omega Semiconductor (NASDAQ:AOSL) agreed to pay $4.25M to settle with the U.S. Department of Commerce.

The company allegedly shipped items to China’s Huawei Technologies in violation of export rules.

Alpha said it reached a resolution with the department’s Bureau of Industry and Security, or BIS, to close its investigation of the company’s export control practices.

The company noted that the resolution does not impact its ongoing business operations and brings to an end the U.S. government’s five-year-plus investigation, which resulted in no criminal charges.

Reuters reported, citing a department order that Alpha engaged in prohibited conduct by forwarding 1,650 power controllers, smart power stages and related accessories to Huawei without authorization in 2019. Huawei was added to a restricted U.S. trade list in 2019.

The U.S. Department of Commerce did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Seeking Alpha.

Starboard Value has built an over 9% stake in Tripadvisor (NASDAQ:TRIP).

The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that it was not immediately clear what the activist investor was seeking from the firm.

The stake is valued at about $160 million. TRIP is up 4.6% premarket after gaining 8% on Wednesday.

Tripadvisor’s (NASDAQ:TRIP) stock has declined 15% over the past year.

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Dow, S&P and Nasdaq futures are in the green. Crude oil is down 0.9% at $66/barrel. Bitcoin is up 0.7% at $109,000. Gold is down 0.1% at $3,353.

The FTSE 100 is up 0.4% and the DAX is up 0.3%.

The biggest movers for the day premarket: Theratechnologies (NASDAQ:THTX) +30% – Shares surged after the biopharma firm agreed to be acquired by CB Biotechnology, an affiliate of Future Pak.

On today’s economic calendar:

• 8:30 AM Employment Situation-The U.S. economy is expected to add 110K jobs in June, according to the consensus of economists, down from the 139K estimate of jobs created in May. The unemployment rate is anticipated to tick up to 4.3% from 4.2% in May.