US Market: Meta shares rebound as Muse AI agent fuels revenue hopes

Meta shares have rebounded to levels last seen in summer 2025, driven by growing investor interest in Muse, the social media giant’s artificial intelligence agent and its potential to create revenue streams beyond advertising, AFP reported.

Meta stock rose 4.5% on Thursday after surging more than 11% on Monday, marking its biggest one-day gain since April 2025. At around $778, the shares have recovered significantly from a late-March low of about $525, reached after two court rulings concerning the impact of Meta’s social media platforms on young people’s mental health, according to AFP.

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The Facebook and Instagram owner came under renewed pressure in late July after its quarterly results highlighted the cost of its aggressive AI investments. Meta’s spending on artificial intelligence could reach as much as $145 billion this year, raising concerns over whether the company can generate sufficient returns from investments of that scale, AFP reported.

Meta generates almost all of its revenue from advertising, making the development of additional AI-driven businesses increasingly important to its growth strategy.

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Muse was launched in the United States on September 8 and in Canada on September 18, making those the only two markets where the AI agent is currently available, according to AFP.

The assistant is designed to perform tasks on behalf of users, including booking travel, sending emails and making purchases. It is available to users aged 18 and above at no charge, although usage is subject to limits. Meta also offers optional subscriptions priced at $20 and $100 per month for users requiring more intensive access.

Muse has gained early traction. AFP reported, citing data from Apptopia, that the application was downloaded 1.8 million times on iPhones in North America in less than two weeks. That compares with 1.3 million downloads for OpenAI’s ChatGPT when its mobile application launched in May 2023.

Meta is also expanding Muse beyond smartphones. At its annual Connect conference on Wednesday, the company said the assistant would soon be integrated into its smart glasses. Meta has also announced partnerships with retailers including Walmart, potentially allowing the company to earn commissions from purchases made through the AI agent, AFP reported.

The expansion has also exposed some of the challenges facing agentic AI. Amazon blocked Muse from accessing its website on Sunday, alleging that Meta’s software did not properly identify itself while browsing and stored customers’ login information. Meta has disputed those concerns, saying Muse does not access users’ passwords or payment information, according to AFP.

The growing enthusiasm around Muse has prompted some analysts to raise their expectations for Meta. JPMorgan lifted its price target for the company to $920 on Thursday, with the bank arguing that Muse could become a major consumer AI application, AFP reported.

However, concerns remain over consumer trust and the ability of AI agents to handle sensitive information. According to AFP, a recent Oppenheimer survey found that only 8% of Americans said they would trust Meta to store passwords for other applications, compared with 30% for Google. Such credentials can be required by AI agents to perform tasks on behalf of users.

Meta has another major advantage in its push to scale Muse: its enormous existing user base. The company says its platforms collectively reach more than 3.6 billion daily users, giving it a large potential audience for new AI products and services, AFP reported.

Meta has previously used its massive social-media ecosystem to launch competing products. In 2023, it introduced Threads as a rival to X, formerly known as Twitter, following Elon Musk’s acquisition of the platform.

Threads secured 100 million sign-ups within five days of its launch, although its growth subsequently slowed. TechCrunch estimated that the platform had around 140 million daily active users in January, according to AFP.

For Meta, the performance of Muse could therefore have implications beyond the initial response to a new AI application. The company is seeking to turn its huge user base and heavy AI investment into new sources of revenue while reducing its reliance on advertising.

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