Reddit Shares surge as analyst talks up its value to feed AI models

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Analyst talks up Reddit’s value as a source for AI

The company’s posts “offer a unique training dataset.”

6/18/25 12:29PM

Reddit shares continue to romp on relatively little news in early trading, with the stock up more than 20% over the last three days, as of just before 12:30 p.m. ET.

As noted, Reddit has all the ingredients to make a squeeze-y stew: a recent surge of options activity, relatively high short interest, and a sprinkling of spicy chatter from retail traders on r/WallStreetBets.

But yesterday, analysts at brokerage firm B. Riley Securities also published a note spotlighting some potential upside for the stock based on Meta’s recent roughly $15 billion deal for Scale AI, a US-based startup that essentially tags and labels data that AI models need to digest.

B. Riley analysts wrote:

“While Scale AI’s curated data labeling services used for LLM training differ from Reddit’s content, we note that Reddit’s 10M daily posts+ user signals and a corpus of 1B+ posts/16B+ comments also offer a unique training dataset, and the intrinsic value of the dataset may not be reflected in the stock’s valuation today. We believe that RDDT’s platform DAUs essentially provide data annotation through user-generated content (posts, comments), upvotes/downvotes, and content moderation.
...Reports of Scale AI’s key customers’ plans point to value of independent training data sets such as Reddit, in our view. According to media reports, Google, which was expected to pay Scale AI ~$200M in 2025, plans to cut its ties with Scale AI post-deal. Other large tech companies — Microsoft and xAI, are also reportedly considering moving away from Scale AI. Scale-AI’s ability to service many large LLM players also points to the importance of independence of data providers such as Reddit.”

Of course, there’s always the chance that Meta is simply wildly overpaying for Scale AI, which would change the analysis somewhat. But it will take a long time to figure that out. In the meantime, the market does seem to be putting a premium on potential sources of feedstock for AI to devour.

Tasha Matsumoto

1/9/26

S&P 500 climbs to a new record high after mixed jobs report

Employers added fewer jobs than expected last month, but the unemployment rate ticked down.

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS - JANUARY 02: Isaac Okoro #35 of the Chicago Bulls dunks the ball during the second half against the Orlando Magic at the United Center on January 2, 2026 in Chicago, Illinois.

Matt Phillips1/9/26

Sandisk rides Wall Street price target hikes toward new record

Sandisk leapt Friday, riding a resurgent wave of AI-related market exuberance as well as two price target hikes from Wall Street analysts.

Goldman Sachs lifted its target for the stock to $320 from $280, while keeping a “buy” rating on the stock. Mizhuho lifted its target to a Street high of $410 from its previous target of $250, while maintaining an “outperform” rating on the shares.

Long considered a maker of commodity data storage products, Sandisk was spun off by Western Digital in an IPO in February.

When it dawned on the market sometime in the fall that the AI boom would mean an explosion in demand for data storage, Sandisk shares went parabolic.

Its more than 350% run-up between the ends of August and December led to Sandisk’s inclusion in the S&P 500. And its 560% gain for the year made it the index’s top performer.

Luke Kawa1/9/26

It looks like the stock market was expecting some tariff relief

The S&P 500 briefly dipped into negative territory and tariff-sensitive stocks swung from big gains to big losses after the Supreme Court declined to give a ruling on tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump under the IEEPA.

A basket of “Trump Tariff Losers” stocks compiled by UBS, which includes Under Armour, American Eagle, Yeti, Mattel, and Deckers Outdoor, was up as much as 1.5% in early trading before falling as much as 1.7% after news of the lack of news surfaced.

The good news is that for the market as a whole (and even this group in particular), the pain seems to have been short-lived, with both bouncing back to erase losses.

It’s a decent little snapshot or case study to show that, yes, as prediction markets imply, the stock market is pricing in tariff relief.

J. Edward Moreno1/9/26

Amazon pharmacy to begin offering home delivery for Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy pill

Amazon Pharmacy announced Friday that it will offer Novo Nordisk’s recently approved weight-loss pill Wegovy, the newest frontier in the drugmaker’s push toward direct-to-consumer options.

Amazon said it will offer delivery for the pill through insurance and cash-pay options. Novo’s cash-pay price for the pill is $149 a month — less than half of what its injectables cost through the same channel.

Novo has partnered with big-box stores like Costco and Walmart as well as several big telehealth companies, including Ro, Weight Watchers, and LifeMD, to distribute the pill. This comes as the Danish pharma giant is trying to regain ground after Eli Lilly surpassed it in market share, in large part because of its early emphasis on direct-to-consumer channels.

The Food and Drug Administration approved Novo’s weight-loss pill in December, making it the first approved weight-loss pill to go to market. It has the same active ingredient, semaglutide, as its injectable products, Ozempic and Wegovy. Lilly’s oral version, orforglipron, is expected to come to market later this year.

Matt Phillips1/9/26

Intel gains after a favorable post from Trump

Intel continued its strong 2026 start by rising early Friday, following a favorable online post from President Trump, whose administration partially nationalized the ailing American chip giant in August.

In a Truth Social post Thursday afternoon, he praised CEO Lip-Bu Tan, boasted about the amount of money the government’s 10% investment in the company has made, and said, “Our Country is determined to bring leading edge Chip Manufacturing back to America, and that is exactly what is happening!!!”

Even after adjusting for the Trumpian tendency toward hyperbole, that last comment will be intriguing to Intel watchers. The company’s search to make deals with external customers willing to use its next-generation contract chip manufacturing business, crucial to the future of Intel’s ailing foundry business, will likely be a key driver of the stock price this year.

It’s not nuts to think that having the US government as a shareholder and the president as an active cheerleader — especially one who’s not shy about putting pressure on private sector companies to get what he wants — could be helpful in corralling reticent foundry customers.

Intel is up roughly 16% year to date and has more than doubled over the last year.

Intel stock rises after Trump touts 'very successful' CEO, applauds government's investment