Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META) surged 11.3% on Monday, closing at $741.25 as investors responded to the explosive early performance of its new Muse AI agent.
The single-day rally added approximately $192 billion to Meta’s market cap and more than $13 billion to CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s personal net worth.
Muse reached 2.8 million downloads within its first 12 days across both the U.S. and Canadian app stores, according to Sensor Tower data.
That figure significantly outpaces the early adoption of ChatGPT, which recorded 1.3 million downloads in its first 12 days compared to Muse’s 1.8 million at the same stage.
Muse also set a new U.S. daily download record of 264,000 on September 19, marking its third consecutive day above the 200,000 threshold.
Investor enthusiasm intensified further as Muse climbed to the top spot on Apple’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) App Store, a milestone that signals broad consumer interest well beyond early adopters.
Evercore ISI analyst Mark Mahaney captured the market’s mood in a new research note, stating: “Lots can and will change in the future, but the key, simple point is that Meta has a hit on its hands with Muse.”
Meta’s chief AI officer Alexandr Wang also weighed in on the launch, writing on X that “Muse’s goal was to make AI accessible to way more people.”
Mahaney argues that the most consequential factor for Meta’s stock is whether Muse can break into the lucrative enterprise market during the ongoing AI infrastructure boom.
He noted that competitors have already staked their claims in that space, with OpenAI touting its goal of being primarily enterprise revenue driven by the end of 2026.
Anthropic, meanwhile, has publicly distanced itself from consumer AI monetization, even using Super Bowl advertising to criticize ad-based revenue models deployed by rivals.
Mahaney explained that Meta has historically traded at a lower price-to-earnings multiple than its hyperscaler peers because its heavy AI investments lacked a clear enterprise angle comparable to cloud computing.
In his note, Mahaney outlined three core reasons why Muse is significant for Meta shareholders, pointing to evidence of successful product innovation, new usage and engagement drivers, and fresh monetization opportunities spanning advertising, subscriptions, and transaction revenue.
He described those monetization avenues as operating against what he called “multi-trillion dollar total addressable markets,” underscoring the scale of what Muse could eventually unlock for the company.
Meta’s annualized capital expenditure and operating expenditure on AI has exceeded $200 billion, and Muse now stands as the clearest public signal yet that those investments are beginning to bear commercial fruit.
