Meta shares are returning to their summer 2025 highs on the stock market, with investors welcoming after months of doubt the first steps of Muse, the social media giant’s artificial intelligence (AI) agent, which suggests revenue beyond advertising. The stock gained 4.5% on Thursday after jumping more than 11% on Monday, its biggest increase in one session since April 2025. At around $778, the stock has regained nearly 50% since a low at the end of March, the day after two court convictions for the effects of its social networks on the mental health of young people.
At the end of July, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram had fallen further after results weighed down by its spending on AI, up to $145 billion this year. The markets doubted whether Meta, which derives almost all of its revenue from advertising, would make such monumental investments profitable.
Launched on September 8 in the United States then on the 18th in Canada, the only countries where it is available, Muse is not only a conversational robot, but a multitasking AI assistant, capable of acting on behalf of its user: booking a trip, sending emails, making purchases. Reserved for those over 18, Muse exists in a free version, and two subscriptions at $20 and $100 per month allow more intensive use.
Over its first twelve days, Muse was downloaded 1.8 million times on iPhone in North America, compared to 1.3 million for ChatGPT, OpenAI’s conversational robot, when its application was launched in May 2023, according to the Apptopia firm.
On Wednesday, during its annual conference, Meta announced the upcoming arrival of Muse in its connected glasses and partnerships with distributors like Walmart, paving the way for commissions on purchases made by the agent. But Amazon has blocked Muse on its site since Sunday evening. The online commerce giant accuses the software of not identifying itself when it browses and of retaining customer identifiers. Meta ensures that Muse sees neither passwords nor payment methods.
Skepticism remains
JPMorgan raised its price target to $920 on Thursday, estimating that Muse could become “the most widely used consumer AI application since ChatGPT.” Other analysts remain skeptical. Jason Helfstein of Oppenheimer notes that only 8% of Americans surveyed by this bank would trust Meta to keep their passwords for other applications, necessary for the agent to act on their behalf, compared to 30% for Google.
Muse benefits from Meta’s user base, which boasts over 3.6 billion daily users. In 2023, its Threads network, a competitor to X, attracted 100 million subscribers in five days, before seeing its daily audience melt away.
