Meta Platforms’ newly launched artificial intelligence assistant, Muse, has become a major focus for technology investors after strong early adoption helped drive a sharp rise in the company’s shares and contributed to a broader rally in AI-related stocks.
Meta shares rose more than 11% on September 21, adding roughly $200 billion to the company’s market value, according to Reuters. The rally came less than two weeks after Meta launched Muse on September 8 and reflected growing investor interest in the possibility that consumer AI agents could become a significant new business for technology companies.
The market reaction extended beyond Meta.
AI-related technology stocks also advanced, helping the Nasdaq Composite reach a record closing level as investors responded to renewed enthusiasm around artificial intelligence and easing oil prices.
What is Meta’s Muse?
Meta describes Muse as a personal AI agent designed to do more than answer questions.
The company says users can give Muse tasks such as sending emails, booking travel, making purchases and developing plans around longer-term goals. The system can operate a browser, fill out forms and continue working on tasks after a user closes the application, returning when an action requires approval.
Meta says Muse operates through a dedicated virtual machine called Muse Secure VM.
The company designed the system so that the AI agent and a user’s connected data operate within a separate computing environment. Meta says a separate security system, called Sentinel, controls whether Muse can access the internet and asks for user permission when required.
The company has positioned this agent-based approach as part of CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s broader effort to develop what Meta calls personal superintelligence.
Early downloads attract investor attention
Muse’s early adoption has become one of the main reasons for the recent investor enthusiasm.
Reuters reported that Muse had reached more than 2.5 million downloads roughly two weeks after launch, while another Reuters report said downloads had reached 2.8 million within 12 days. The figures were presented as evidence of strong early consumer interest in an AI product designed to perform tasks rather than simply provide conversational responses.
Muse also reached the top of Apple’s US App Store rankings.
That early traction has encouraged investors to consider whether Meta could turn its enormous existing user base into a distribution advantage for consumer AI.
However, downloads do not by themselves establish how frequently users will continue using Muse, how many will pay for premium services or how much revenue the product will ultimately generate.
Meta plans several levels of access
Meta launched Muse with a free version alongside paid subscription options.
Reuters reported that the company offers subscription tiers priced at $20 and $100 per month for users seeking additional capabilities.
The company’s broader strategy is to make the basic experience widely accessible while creating opportunities to generate revenue from users who want more advanced features.
This model differs from the traditional advertising approach that has historically been central to Meta’s business.
The company could potentially generate revenue from subscriptions, transactions and other services performed through AI agents.
AI agents could change online commerce
Muse is also designed to participate in online transactions.
Meta says users can authorize the agent to make purchases, with payments initially supported through Link from Stripe. The company says Link provides a one-time-use card so that a user’s actual payment-card details are not exposed to the merchant during the transaction.
Meta has also been expanding its commerce partnerships.
A September 22 report said Meta had partnered with Shopify to bring Shop Pay’s agentic checkout to Muse, potentially allowing users to complete purchases through participating Shopify stores.
If such systems become widely adopted, AI assistants could increasingly become intermediaries between consumers and websites.
That would give AI companies a role not only in discovering products but also in completing transactions.
Amazon blocks Muse shopping access
The expansion of agentic commerce has already created tension between technology companies.
Amazon has blocked Meta’s Muse from shopping on Amazon.com, saying it had concerns about data security and other issues. The move followed attempts to resolve the dispute directly between the companies.
The dispute highlights one of the challenges facing AI agents.
For an agent to act on behalf of a user, it needs access to websites, accounts and services. Companies operating those services must decide whether they are comfortable allowing another company’s AI system to interact with their platforms.
Those decisions could shape how quickly agentic AI becomes integrated into everyday online activity.
Privacy remains a major issue
Meta has emphasized privacy and security as central features of Muse.
The company says users decide which applications Muse can access and what permissions it receives. It also says Muse does not have visibility into users’ passwords or payment methods stored in secure systems and that people can disconnect services or tell Muse to forget information.
Meta also says conversations and data stored in a user’s Muse virtual machine are not shared with its advertising systems.
The company plans to introduce an additional Confidential VM later in 2026, with encryption designed so that the user alone controls the key.
Those protections are important because an AI agent capable of acting independently can potentially have considerably greater access to sensitive information than a conventional chatbot.
Security concerns emerge after launch
Muse’s rapid expansion has also coincided with security scrutiny.
Security researchers reported a vulnerability affecting the Mac version of the assistant that could potentially allow an attacker to gain extensive control over connected accounts and system functions. Meta subsequently issued a patch, according to reporting published on September 22.
The development illustrates the security challenge associated with agentic AI.
A chatbot that only produces text has a different risk profile from an assistant that can browse websites, interact with accounts, make purchases and perform actions on behalf of users.
The more permissions an agent receives, the greater the importance of access controls, isolation and safeguards against malicious instructions.
Meta is testing human assistance for phone calls
Meta has also begun testing a human component in some Muse phone-call functions.
Reuters reported that the company is testing a “human concierge” system in which contractors can handle some calls made through Muse. The feature is being tested internally as Meta evaluates the safety and performance of the assistant’s phone-calling capabilities.
Muse’s calling capability allows the assistant to contact businesses, communicate with people who answer the phone and generate transcripts and summaries.
The involvement of human contractors has raised privacy questions among some Meta employees because calls can potentially involve sensitive personal information.
Meta said the testing is intended to improve safety and privacy before any broader release.
Investors see a possible new business
The strongest market reaction to Muse has been linked to its potential commercial impact.
Reuters reported that analysts at J.P. Morgan believe Muse could become one of the most widely used consumer AI applications if its early adoption continues.
Analysts have also developed revenue projections based on assumptions about user numbers and subscription conversion. One estimate cited by Reuters projected annual revenue of $10.8 billion by 2027 under a scenario involving 1 billion users and a 3% conversion rate to paid plans.
These figures are forecasts rather than realised revenue.
Whether Muse reaches such levels will depend on continued adoption, user retention, pricing, operating costs and Meta’s ability to build commercially useful services around the assistant.
Meta’s AI strategy gains fresh attention
The market response is significant because Meta has invested heavily in artificial intelligence infrastructure and research.
The company has been spending billions of dollars on computing capacity, data centres and AI talent while seeking to compete with other major technology companies developing advanced models and agents.
The success of Muse could provide a consumer-facing demonstration of how those investments can translate into a product used directly by millions of people.
It could also give Meta another route to monetise AI beyond advertising.
AI rally spreads to chip companies
The enthusiasm around Muse has extended into semiconductor stocks.
Reuters reported that AMD and other chipmakers benefited from the renewed AI rally, with AMD’s market valuation moving above $1 trillion.
The relationship reflects the wider economics of AI.
More capable AI agents require significant computing resources, which increases demand for advanced processors, memory and data-centre infrastructure.
The effect is therefore not limited to companies developing AI assistants.
Chip designers, semiconductor manufacturers, cloud providers and data-centre operators can all benefit if demand for AI computing continues to grow.
Nasdaq reaches a record
The AI enthusiasm helped push the Nasdaq to a record closing level on September 22.
Reuters reported that the technology-heavy index benefited from gains in major technology companies, including Meta, while investors also responded to falling oil prices and hopes that diplomatic efforts could reduce tensions in the Middle East.
The broader market was more mixed.
The S&P 500 was slightly lower while the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined, with financial stocks among the weaker areas.
The contrast shows that the market rally was concentrated in technology and AI-related shares rather than representing a uniform rise across all sectors.
AI optimism faces several tests
The early market reaction does not remove the risks facing Meta’s AI strategy.
One major question is whether initial downloads translate into long-term engagement.
Another is whether consumers will pay for an AI agent after experimenting with a free version.
There are also questions about the reliability of agents when they are allowed to perform real-world tasks.
An AI system that sends an email, books travel or purchases a product can cause more significant consequences when it makes a mistake than a chatbot producing an incorrect answer.
Platform competition could become more intense
The emergence of agentic AI is also likely to intensify competition among technology companies.
Meta is competing with established AI assistants and model providers while also leveraging its Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp ecosystem.
The company says Muse is designed to work across services people already use, giving it potential access to a very large consumer audience.
Other technology companies are pursuing similar concepts.
The competition is increasingly moving from simply producing better AI-generated answers toward creating systems that can complete tasks on behalf of users.
The advertising model could also evolve
Meta’s traditional business depends heavily on advertising across its social platforms.
AI agents introduce another potential economic model.
If an assistant becomes the interface through which users search, shop, book travel or manage services, the company operating that assistant could potentially participate in transactions or charge for premium capabilities.
That could eventually alter how technology companies generate revenue from user activity.
For Meta, the challenge will be developing these new revenue sources without undermining user trust or its existing advertising business.
What happens next
The next stage for Muse will be measured less by its initial download numbers and more by sustained usage.
Investors will be watching whether users continue delegating tasks to the assistant, whether paid subscriptions grow and whether Meta can expand the number of services that Muse can safely interact with.
Security developments will also be important.
The company will need to demonstrate that an AI agent with access to users’ accounts can operate reliably while protecting sensitive information.
Meta’s AI bet enters a new phase
Muse has given investors a new reason to focus on Meta’s AI strategy.
The assistant’s early adoption has helped lift Meta shares and contributed to a wider rally in AI-related companies, while its ability to perform real-world tasks has created expectations that consumer AI agents could become a significant technology category.
At the same time, the product remains at an early stage.
Meta faces questions over security, privacy, platform access, monetisation and long-term user engagement.
The company’s response to those challenges will help determine whether Muse develops from a highly visible new AI product into a durable consumer platform.
For now, the market response shows that investors are paying close attention to the possibility that AI assistants will move beyond answering questions and begin acting as digital intermediaries for everyday tasks.
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