Meta Stock Surges 11% on Investor Confidence in Muse Agent

Meta’s stock surged by 11.43% on Monday, closing at $741.25, as investors enthusiastically backed the company’s strategic pivot toward artificial intelligence agents. Trading volume reached 48.5 million shares, significantly exceeding the three-month average, according to The Motley Fool. This market rally added approximately $25 billion to Mark Zuckerberg’s net worth in a single day, pushing his estimated fortune to $253.6 billion. Forbes calculated this figure based on his approximate 13% stake in the company, though TNW has not independently verified the valuation.

The primary driver of this financial surge is Muse, Meta’s new personal AI agent launched earlier this month. Offering a free tier alongside subscription plans priced at $20 and $100 per month, Muse handles tasks such as booking travel, managing emails, and executing purchases on behalf of users. Its popularity was immediate; within two weeks of its release, it surpassed both ChatGPT and Claude in Apple’s iOS download rankings. In response to this momentum, Wells Fargo analyst Ken Gawrelski raised his price target for Meta from $640 to $796. He noted that the company “now has a story to tell” regarding its AI capabilities, highlighting potential upside from subscription revenue generated by heavy users.

This positive sentiment marks a shift from earlier investor skepticism regarding Meta’s massive spending. In April, the company projected capital expenditures between $125 billion and $145 billion for 2026, a period coinciding with its first-ever decline in daily active users. That uncertainty previously caused the stock to drop 9% after hours. However, Meta is now framing Muse as the foundational step toward personal superintelligence, a concept Zuckerberg detailed in an essay published this summer. The company believes this technology will be one of the most transformative developments of a lifetime, and the market appears ready to reward that vision.

Despite the bullish stock performance, the launch has faced immediate operational hurdles. Amazon blocked Muse from its digital store, citing violations of its conditions of use regarding unauthorized AI agents. For a product reliant on automated shopping capabilities, being barred from the largest online retailer in the US represents a significant barrier. Security concerns also emerged shortly after midnight on Tuesday when Meta released a hotfix for a vulnerability in the Muse Mac application. Security researcher Patrick Wardle identified a flaw allowing malicious software already present on a device to hijack a user’s session. While Meta described the practical risk as “quite low” because it requires pre-existing code on the machine, Wardle argued that social engineering tactics could easily facilitate that initial access.

Attention now turns to Meta Connect, the annual hardware and developer event scheduled for September 23 and 24. Reports suggest the company will showcase camera-free smart glasses designed to integrate voice commands with Meta AI and Muse. Wells Fargo has indicated that adoption metrics for Muse will be the critical data point for investors during this event. With Zuckerberg holding roughly $25 billion in newly realized paper wealth, the success of these upcoming announcements will likely determine whether the current market confidence translates into sustained long-term growth.