Meta shares jumped 11.3% to close at $741.25 after its new Muse AI app rocketed to the top of Apple's App Store, adding $192 billion to the company's market cap. Muse set download records that outpaced ChatGPT's early growth, and one Wall Street analyst says the app could open new revenue streams beyond Meta's core advertising business.
Meta shares erupted for an 11.3% gain to close at $741.25 on Monday, adding a robust $192 billion to the company's market cap and more than $13 billion to CEO Mark Zuckerberg's net worth. The rally followed a breakout debut for Muse, Meta's new AI agent.
The stock rose another 0.2% in pre-market trading on Tuesday, extending Monday's advance as investor enthusiasm around Muse continued to build.
Muse app breaks download records
Muse surged to the top spot on Apple's App Store as investor enthusiasm reached a fever pitch. The app reached 2.8 million downloads in its first 12 days across the US and Canada app stores, according to Sensor Tower data.
The app has also outpaced the early growth of ChatGPT, tallying 1.8 million downloads in its first 12 days versus 1.3 million for ChatGPT over the same stretch. It also set a new US daily download record of 264,000 on Sept. 19, its third straight day above 200,000 downloads.
An analyst sees a strategic shift for Meta
Evercore ISI's Mark Mahaney says Muse is the clearest evidence yet that Meta's AI spending is starting to pay off. He argues the market has fixated on enterprise AI while assuming consumers won't pay for AI products, even as Meta has poured more than $200 billion in annualized capex and opex into AI infrastructure.
Meta's chief AI officer, Alexandr Wang, put the app's ambition simply. According to Wang: "Muse's goal was to make AI accessible to way more people." Mahaney also frames Muse's momentum as a sign of new monetization channels for Meta, including advertising, subscriptions and transaction revenue share.
Source: Yahoo Finance
Trading involves risk.
Risk Disclaimer
