Meta Platforms’ new AI agent, Muse, is achieving rapid consumer adoption, with over 2.5 million global downloads in two weeks, outperforming rivals like Claude, Gemini, and even ChatGPT on iOS. This success is recalibrating Wall Street’s focus from enterprise to consumer AI, prompting analysts to suggest consumer agents will drive the next phase of the AI trade and boost demand for computing power. However, Muse’s quick ascent is also creating friction, with Amazon reportedly blocking the agent from its site and analysts predicting an increase in app cancellations for other services.
Meta Platforms' revolutionary personal AI assistant, Muse, is rapidly gaining traction, shifting the focus of Wall Street's AI investment narrative back to consumer engagement. Early adoption metrics reveal Muse significantly outpacing rivals, registering over 2.5 million global downloads within its initial two weeks. This impressive performance, confirmed by data from Jefferies and Sensor Tower, saw it surpass competitors like Anthropic's Claude and Google's Gemini. Furthermore, a recent UBS note, leveraging Apptopia data, indicates Muse is even exceeding OpenAI's ChatGPT in iOS mobile downloads. Industry experts are taking notice, with JPMorgan's Doug Anmuth predicting Muse could emerge as the dominant consumer AI application, stating, "Muse has the potential to become the most widely used consumer AI application since ChatGPT." In response to this success, Jefferies has elevated Meta's price target from $710 to $875, signaling an potential 18% upside from recent closing prices.
These stellar performance figures are redirecting Wall Street's gaze towards the burgeoning consumer AI market, away from the previously dominant enterprise AI sector. Mark Mahaney, Head of Internet Research at Evercore ISI, commented to CNBC, "I think the space has been largely ignored as everybody's kind of chased enterprise AI." UBS analysts echoed this sentiment, suggesting that consumer-focused AI agents "may power the next phase of the AI trade." Ulrike Hoffmann-Burchardi of UBS highlighted, "Meta's Muse provides early evidence that consumer AI agents could achieve broad adoption. This not only offers new AI monetization opportunities beyond enterprise application, but also underpins growing demand for computing power." The ripple effect is already being felt in the tech hardware sector, with JPMorgan's trading desk noting that Muse's success is "putting a spotlight back on the need for CPU server demand," consequently driving up shares of companies like Intel (INTC), AMD, and ARM. While Intel and AMD saw marginal gains, Micron climbed approximately 3%, and Arm Holdings surged over 1%.
Analysts predict an immense and diverse market for digital consumer spending, potentially worth $30 trillion, that could be revolutionized by agentic products across sectors such as online advertising, e-commerce, travel, food delivery, and ridesharing. Morgan Stanley's Brian Nowak emphasized, "the dollars are real." However, Muse's swift rise is also generating headwinds, particularly within e-commerce. Amazon, for instance, reportedly blocked Muse from its platform, preventing it from functioning as a personal shopping agent and potentially rivaling Amazon's in-house AI tools. An Amazon spokesperson clarified to CNBC, "We think it's fairly straightforward that third-party applications that offer to make purchases on behalf of customers from other businesses should operate openly and respect service provider decisions," adding that they have requested Meta to remove Amazon from Muse's experience. Wall Street analysts also anticipate Muse's potential to drive increased app cancellations and software churn. Bryan Kraft of Deutsche Bank highlighted that "Streaming services and The New York Times are the most vulnerable," as Muse could empower users to manage subscriptions more effectively, identify bundled services, and downgrade to more affordable plans. Furthermore, Muse's booming success raises questions about Meta's recently announced cloud business. Amit Daryanani of Evercore ISI suggested it is now "unlikely given the success of Muse that Meta would look to rent out excess capacity," implying Meta will retain its computing power for its own rapidly expanding AI initiatives.
