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Meta Stock Added $200 Billion But Its New AI May Not Scale

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wednesday

Meta’s new AI assistant can make a telephone call for you. During an internal trial, however, some calls may be handled by a contractor through a feature Meta calls “human concierge" on Meta. Wall Street has largely treated that as a product-development detail. It is central to the investment case because Meta stock has gained nearly $200 billion in market value before investors know how much of the service is genuinely automated.

Muse launched on September 8 and quickly moved to the top of the U.S. app charts. It can send emails, arrange travel, shop online, complete forms, and call businesses on behalf of users. More than 2.5 million downloads followed within roughly two weeks, and Meta shares jumped 11% in one session as investors started treating Muse as the consumer product that could finally explain the company’s enormous AI expenditure.

It’s no wonder people are excited. Meta has around 3.6 billion daily users across Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger. It is believed to be eyeing Muse subscriptions in the $20 to $100 a month range, which could produce billions of recurring revenue even with a modest conversion rate. The market has already done that calculation. The part it cannot yet calculate is what each paying customer will cost Meta to serve. That is similar to the question I raised in Anthropic IPO Could Hit $2 Trillion And Put Public Investors Last. Rapid adoption can create an extraordinary company while leaving investors uncertain about how much of the economics remain after computing, infrastructure, and competition take their share.

Meta Stock Has Already Moved Past The Launch

Muse quickly shifted the focus on Meta. Before the launch, shareholders could see the AI expenditure but had difficulty identifying the consumer product that would justify it. AI was improving advertisements, recommendations, and engagement, yet those benefits disappeared into Meta’s existing operations. Muse gave investors a separate product with visible adoption and a possible subscription model.

The timing helped. Meta’s advertising business is growing quickly, providing management with the cash flow to finance experimentation. Second-quarter revenue increased 28% to $60.8 billion, although the operating margin fell to 31%. Meta spent $31.1 billion on capital investment during the quarter and expects 2026 capital expenditures of........

© Forbes